Council, mayor vote against controversial telecom bill

State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, led a chorus of voices in an impassioned plea during a Bloomington City Council meeting Wednesday to do all that was in its power to oppose a telecommunications bill currently before the Indiana General Assembly.\nPierce warned that the bill would transfer local authority regarding cable TV franchising rights to a state agency, deregulate telephone rates and offer incentives and subsidies to telecom corporations wishing to set up broadband infrastructure at the expense of local broadband efforts.\nThe Bloomington Telecommunications Council appeared in its entirety to voice opposition to the bill, along with Mayor Mark Kruzan and representatives from both WTIU and CATS community access television.\n"This is lay-down-in-front-of-the-bulldozer time, the way this bill is moving," Pierce said. \nAs one of only three state representatives in the entire Assembly to oppose this bill, Pierce took umbrage with both his own party and Gov. Mitch Daniels for their recent extolment of local government authority, then backing this legislation.\nKruzan agreed that revoking local authority over this matter is unwarranted. \n"Bad bills should die, and this is certainly the case with this bill," he said.