Action 174 Oppose 1975

Background:  No, not the year 1975!  LD 1975 is a bipartisan bill in the Maine Legislature that proposes to clean up some “redundancies” between the Maine Connectivity Authority enabling legislation, and previous legislation creating ConnectME, a predecessor agency (1).  Sounds innocuous, right?  Who could be against cleaning up redundancies?  If you have super-duper, high speed internet now (possibly thanks to a ConnectME grant), you probably aren’t focused on this issue, but you might want to wade into the policy weeds to help create a better internet future for those less fortunate than some of us - including our beloved Heather Cox Richardson, who mentioned today while talking with Joyce Vance, that her internet is terrible! 

LD 1975 as currently written is premature.  In a nutshell:  when the MCA was created, it took on ConnectME’s responsibilities, contracts, people and budget.  But some of that prior work was federally and state funded, and the funding is targeted to ConnectME as an entity.  ConnectME currently serves as a subsidiary to MCA.  Its funding cannot easily be transferred to a now-parent organization.  Full integration of the two agencies is part of the plan, but not until 2027 when all “legacy” programs will be finished.  Terminating its “legacy” programs and their funding prematurely will damage MCA, which has already lost $35M from Trump’s slashing of Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  ConnectME’s budget provides MCA with matching funds for grants, funds for technical and policy studies, and funds for community education and outreach (e.g. digital literacy). The $2 M that MCA receives annually from ConnectME’s “assessment fee” (1) leverages over $100 M in federal funding and $25 M in private investment.

Action:  Send a note to the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee (on which our senator Nicole Grohoski sits) opposing LD 1975 in its current form.  The full name of the bill is “An Act to Eliminate the ConnectMaine Authority by Repealing the Advanced Technology Infrastructure Act”, the text of the bill is here (2) . For a refresher on how to submit testimony, see this link (3). Be sure to send a copy to Senator Grohoski.

Contact:         Senator Nicole Grohoski, Nicole.Grohoski@legislature.maine.gov

                        Lindsay Laxon, Legislative Analyst for the EUT committee (207) 287-1670

Urgency:  The public hearing is at 10 AM October 30

Extra Credit:

(1) The fee consists of a 0.0025 % assessment on a communications service provider's state revenues, plus a surcharge of 10 cents per phone line or number each month. This fee is applied to both wired and wireless services. 

(2) https://legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/HP1319?legislature=132  This page lists the sponsors

(3) https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/Documents/Testifying