The Revised Cable Franchising Centralization Bill (SB 117) Is Due Out Tomorrow

Just got an email from Local Voice Ohio, the coalition opposing S.B. 117. Note that the PEG in the email is short from Public/Education/Government cable channels. In other words, what we call public access. Also, the email came as one blob of a paragraph, but I've reformatted the bullet points into the list it surely was intended to be:

Dear Friend of PEG,

Time is short and we are at a critical juncture in supporting PEG interests in Ohio. Senator Jacobson has introduced a substitute bill that will go before the committee tomorrow (Tuesday the 8th) that does not go far enough in supporting PEG in Ohio. Among the problems with the bill.

* PEG funding is only grandfathered until your franchise ends or January 1, 2012, whichever COMES FIRST!
* While the number of PEG channels is grandfathered, only 3 remain on the basic tier if you are a community larger than 50,000, and only 2 if your population is less than 50,000. The rest get pushed onto the upper tiers.
* New PEG channels, if you can qualify for them, go up on the digital tiers.
* No funding for new PEGs!
That's just a few of the problems with this bill, but they are key ones related to PEG. We need you to take action now! We need you to e-mail the members of the E&PU committee and say the following. Dear Senator, The language in the substitute bill for SB 117, while a step in the right direction, does not go far enough in supporting PEG Access. I ask that you amend SB 117 with the language provided by Local Voice Ohio. Local Voice Ohio speaks for me on SB 117.

They would like people to send the email to members of the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee. While they don't mention it in the email, LVO has a tool on it's website that allows people to fax their representatives. You should change the text of the message if you use that.

The members of the committee are Schuler, Bruerer, Coughlin, Jacobson, Niehaus and Spada on the Repub side and Ray Miller, Mason and Wilson on the Dems. You click through the link above to the Committee list and click through the name of the member you want to contact to get the info. Note from a previous post that all but Schuler, Coughlin and Wilson are co-sponsors. Also if you are new to S.B. 117, that post has good links to resources in other blogs.