Oregon Gives Comcast $15 Million Annually For Doing Nothing A few years ago, you might recall that Oregon legislators passed a new law giving tax cuts to ISPs willing to quickly deploy gigabit broadband in the state. The goal was to encourage the rise of smaller broadband competitors, easing their entry into what traditional has been a very hostile market controlled by politically-powerful incumbents. But the effort had numerous issues, first of which being that an initial draft actually make deployment more expensive for companies like Google Fiber.

The other problem: Comcast quickly nabbed millions in tax breaks due to the legislation without having to do much of anything different. Oregon lawmakers quickly lamented their decision, pointing out that Comcast charging $300 per month (plus a $1000 install fee) wasn't quite the kind of behavior they were looking to reward. The 2015 effort also backfired in that Google Fiber, which had repeatedly hinted at offering service in the city, abruptly backtracked in 2016 after Google higher ups began to get cold feet about the slow pace and high costs of fiber deployments. With the tax cuts intended to aid competition instead going to pad incumbent pockets, the state now wants that money going back into its communities, not Comcast's already-flush wallet. As such, state lawmakers are now looking at killing off the relatively young law entirely. But initial efforts to do so haven't gone particularly well so far, in part thanks to Comcast lobbyists who would very much like to retain the $15 million annual tax cut Comcast now gets in the state for effectively doing nothing differently. One repeal effort last week died in the House legislature thanks to this lobbying pressure, and it's not clear when Oregon lawmakers will try again. Locals argue this tax break now lining Comcast's pockets could have gone a long way to help fund cash-strapped regional schools and public services. »twitter.com/WendyJohnson ··· 65406208









News Jump Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 31 comments



tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 1 edit 14 recommendations tshirt Premium Member Not sure why people blame Comcast This was not intended to help Comcast at all.



But due to extremely poorly written legislation (which went through several public battles/revisions to ATTEMPT to make it google SPECIFIC) still failed to get google building and also allowed Comcast to collect the bonus by meeting the letter of the law (after 2(?) court battles)



The root of the problem is the legislatures own ignorance of the tax laws, state revenue, and writing legal and legally precise bills as well as years of company specific patchwork tax breaks.



And now they can't even agree to rescind ongoing payments (legit) while wasting time trying to recover already earned payments (not legit)



OR Leg. needs the overhaul if laws passed do NOT do/say what you thought they would, how can a third party be expected to know what you intended?

instead of term limits how about basic civics education, basic budgeting education, and basic conflict of interest/ethics training BEFORE you can hold office?

this is less about corruption than incompetence



need a state gov't for dummies meme catbrat90

join:2018-02-21

Cincinnati, OH 7 recommendations catbrat90 Member Term limits would be a start on ending this type of pay to play politics. Term limits would be a start on ending this type of pay to play politics.