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« Life Goes On | Main | Lance Dutson Update » April 28, 2006Personal Interest
Senate Bill 3427, a piece of legislation that would allow municipal electric utilities expanded ability to compete with cable, thus taking away some of the cable monopoly and possibly bringing down prices, was debated on the Senate floor. The cable industry is, of course, against the legislation, for obviou$ rea$on$, and fought hard to kill it. Despite their hard work, SB 3427 passed (although it is stalled in the House). Twenty seven senators voted for it. Only two voted against it. One was state Sen. Kathryn Bowers, the Memphis Democrat currently under federal indictment for allegedly accepting bribes. The other: state Sen. Curtis Person Jr., a Memphis Republican. I have written about Sen. Person and his ties to the cable industry before. In this post from October 2005, I explored whether Sen. Person pushed legislation to benefit the cable television industry at the very same time his lobbyist son, Curtis Person III, was applying for the job of Director of State Legislative Affairs for Comcast Cable of Tennessee. And in this post from May of 2003 I explored whether Sen. Persons' son's employment as a lobbyist for another cable company might have had something to do with Sen. Person pushing hard for passage of a law that would have given the cable industry the power to control what kind of devices you hook to the cable outlet in your home so they could force you to rent their devices. The good news: Sen. Person is retiring when his term ends at the end of this year. The bad news: The recently passed "ethics reform" doesn't stop senators from voting on legislation in which they or their family members have a direct financial interest. Posted in Tennessee Government News
Comments
The National Governors Association needs to develop a universal chart of accounts for all the states which can provide the foundation for "apples to apples" comparisons of state budgets. These should be expressed in the xml interactive data technology known as extensible business reporting language (xbrl). The Urban League has developed such a beast for nonprofits but nonprofits seek disclosure as quickly as states do ;-) Wouldn't it be cool if you had to prove your org's societal worth before you get the fed tax exemption -- but I digress... SEC Chairman Cox is pushing for xbrl-based corporate disclosure ( same general intent as Sarbox ) and the UK taxing authority will mandate it by March 2010. If anyone needs help just contact xml.gov or Eric Cohen at PWC. It's strange that the one thing the two main political parties agree on is that the citizenry doesn't deserve to see the real numbers in a manner which allows them to see the underlying context. Posted by: Ed Dodds at May 1, 2006 6:38 AMPost a comment
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A reader tipped me via email to something that happened in the state legislature last Wednesday that, once again, raises ethical questions about a certain state senator and his familial ties to the cable television industry. Read on...