At Johnnie Byrd's insistence and to lobbyists' dismay, a committee votes 7-0 to undo a controversial phone rate law.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 25, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - The topic was familiar: phone rates. But the roles were reversed Wednesday, in dramatic fashion.
This time, consumers cheered and lobbyists protested as a House committee voted to repeal a year-old law that set in motion the biggest increase in phone rates in Florida history.
Acting at the urging of House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, the obscure State Administration Committee sent the repeal bill to the floor. One legislator, Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, complained that the repeal bill was "being thrust down my throat."
But Brown joined his colleagues in a 7-0 vote, despite industry warnings that an abrupt reversal would scare away investors and cost jobs.
Brown and some other House members want Byrd to send the repeal bill to a committee with expertise in telecommunications. Byrd's office said that decision has not been made.
Consumer advocates, who spent the past two years lobbying against telephone deregulation, applauded Wednesday's vote.
"This rate increase is nothing but a monstrous windfall of profits to them," said Ed Paschal, a lobbyist for AARP. "It's nothing but a wholesale ripoff."
Benjamin Ochshorn of Florida Legal Services, representing low-income consumers, said a recent federal court ruling undercut competition by blocking the FCC's ability to let the states regulate some phone charges.
At the House hearing, lobbyists for phone companies argued against repeal. They said the law has not had sufficient time to work, the court decision is inconclusive and repeal would send a terrible message that Florida is an unstable place to do business.
"Why would anybody take away the benefits of competition that the bill was designed to promote?" asked BellSouth attorney John Fons, who called Byrd's repeal measure "a bad bill."
Fons said a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has been misinterpreted. It does not undermine the ability of smaller companies to compete against the so-called "Baby Bells," he contended.
"Nothing has changed," Fons testified. "The court simply has told the FCC to try to do it again, and the FCC is embarking on doing that."
Weldon Feightner, an executive of Knology, a company investing more than $60-million in a broadband network in Pinellas County, said it expanded because the law was an incentive to enter the Tampa Bay market.
"That basically stifles any activity we're going to have in Florida until this issue gets resolved," Feightner said. "Economically, it won't make sense."
Byrd, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, is personally pushing for repeal, saying state lawsuits and the court decision have greatly hampered competition that brings with it the promise of lower rates.
Byrd's battle for repeal is just beginning. The Senate seems more skeptical than ever about repealing the law.
Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who earlier called repeal "premature," now says the lawsuit in the Florida Supreme Court should run its course before state law is changed.
"The Senate is doing exactly what we are supposed to do," King said. "We are a check and balance. ... Nothing is going to be ramrodded through, simply because someone wants to."
