From DailyWireless:

DailyWireless editor, Sam Churchill [that would be me], testified at the state capitol for a hearing on House Bill 2445. That bill would require cities in the state of Oregon to file a 3 year cost analysis and bring the decision to a vote when any public telecommunications service is offered. It doesn't ban municipal communications networks.

I thought it was a bad bill, restricting the development of municipal networks. I think Muni Nets are a good thing (generally). They lower costs for taxpayers.{mos_sb_discuss:3}

So I traveled down to the state capitol in Salem, Oregon. The bill had it's first hearing this morning. If a bill passes the first hearing, it may have a second, then go to the other side of the house for additional hearings. Then it goes to the governor for signing into law.

I basically view communications from a consumer perspective. Cheap and reliable broadband is good. Expensive and monopoly broadband is bad.

It's a simple philosophy.

There were about 100 people in the hearing room, mostly from cities saying it was bad legislation. The picture above shows Wasco County officials who just hooked a big fish with Google after building their downtown municipal fiber network. They said it would have never been built if HB 2445 was the law in Oregon.