Voters can learn from watchdog's utility bite

TROXLER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published March 13, 2002

You might recall that there has been an attempt in this year's Legislature to raise your local telephone rates. I am happy to report that the scheme seems to be in trouble.

Under the proposal, the monthly bills of Verizon customers would go up by at least $1 at a time, once a year, until the total was $5 more than now.

For BellSouth customers, there would be annual increases of $1 a month until the total was $3 a month more than now.

There are several smooth-talking reasons given in Tallahassee for making you pay more. But the real thing was that the big long-distance companies, such as AT&T, would get to pay less money in "access fees' to your local phone company. Your local company could sock it to you as a captive audience to make up the difference.

It looked like a greased deal at first. The bills zipped through their committees. But for the past three weeks, both the House and the Senate versions (HB 1683 and SB 988) have been languishing on the calendar.

My understanding is that the House leadership is not interested in voting to raise phone rates (in an election year) unless the Senate votes first. Why make the House members take a tough vote unnecessarily?

But in the Senate, the schedule is controlled by the Rules Committee. The chairman of that body is Tom Lee, a Republican from Brandon -- who cast a rare vote against this bill in its earlier appearances.

I do not say this kind of thing often. But Lee is an absolute hero for standing up to the telephone lobbyists. Yes, he would like to be president of the Florida Senate one day. Yes, he wants to be a leader of a party that very much needs and wants the campaign money of big interest groups. Still he has told the telephone guys that he cannot support this.

Lee told me on Tuesday that he won't schedule the bill until the House votes for it.

And, even if the bill were to pass both chambers, Gov. Jeb Bush would still have to decide whether to approve it or veto it. He already has told the Legislature he has concerns about it. Is the governor really eager to raise everybody's phone rates in an election year? Do you think he is dying to get this bill?

Things are, uh, on hold.

Certainly, part of what has happened here is that the citizens began speaking up, once they learned of this attempt. This could be one of those rare examples of grass-roots public pressure actually blocking a deal.

There is another guy up in Tallahassee whom ought to be mentioned, too. His name is Michael J. Twomey, and he has made a career of fighting undue utility influence.

I met Twomey 15 years ago when he was still a staff lawyer at the state Public Service Commission, disgusted at Florida's ridiculously pro-utility regulatory scheme. He helped me understand a lot about the system. Over the years, he has helped stop a lot of sneaky deals.

This could have been the perfect year to get sneaky business done. All the attention was being paid to the fight between the House and Senate over tax reform, and political redistricting, and other big stories.

But the pugnacious Twomey, who won a Bronze Star as an artillery officer in Vietnam, kept sending out press releases under the title "Florida Utility Watch." Finally his cause started getting attention. Not even all the assembled special interests of the state can stop an activated and angry public.

Listen: The bills are not dead yet. They could be called up for a vote at any time, as part of the horse trading that occurs in the closing days of a legislative session.

So it's still not a bad idea to call your legislator about it. Please do not call ME to say you don't like it. I can't do you any good. Look up your legislator's number in your telephone book under the government listings. Or you can get your legislator's e-mail address at www.leg.state.fl.us.

If you do call, please be nice to the staff people answering the phone. They're not the ones trying to do it, either. Their bosses are.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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