Broadband Breakfast reports on an issue that came up in the Minnesota Legislature this year, the MN Equal Access to Broadband, which would have allowed local governments to charge franchise fees to broadband providers in their area, akin to cable franchising fees. It did not pass, but the idea clearly lives on…

A gathering of American mayors adopted a resolution Sunday designed to obtain fees from cable operators that utilize municipal property to provide consumers with access to the Internet.

The resolution – adopted at the 92nd annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Kansas City, Mo. – called on the Federal Communications Commission to modify a rule that shields cable Internet access revenue from the 5% fee collected on cable’s pay-TV revenue.

The mayors’ resolution urged the FCC “to act promptly” to modify its “mixed use” rule that they said costs “local governments millions of dollars in reduced franchise and other right-of-way fees and threaten[s] the future of cable franchise access channel and institutional network requirements.”

Also…

In other action, the USCM passed a second resolution announcing opposition to the American Broadband Act of 2023 (H.R. 3557), a bill which the resolution said would “preempt local governments’ rights-of-way compensation and management authority, zoning powers, cable franchising authority, and property rights.”