Johnny Kampis
Colorado lawmakers backed away from a bill that would have prevented the Colorado Department of Transportation from charging annual fees to broadband providers for access to state rights-of-way.
SB-91 was introduced early in the legislative session, but was pulled from the calendar for additional work. It was recovered and narrowly missed the Senate Energy and Transportation Committee by a 4-3 vote on May 1, The Sum & Substance reported. that bill CDOT would have allowed impose a one-time fee for permits to install fiber broadband infrastructure along rights-of-way, but would have prevented an annual fee enacted by the Colorado Transportation Commission (CTC) in December.
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CDOT intends to impose an initial permit fee of 5 cents per foot of fiber, plus annual fees of 3 cents per foot in rural counties and 10 cents per foot in counties with populations of more than 200,000 residents.
Broadband providers and county commissioners in rural areas of the state argued that the additional fees would not only reduce the $826 million amount of Colorado’s share of the federal Broadband, Equity, Access and Implementation (BEAD) program, that would go toward connecting residents, but would also discourage some providers from participating in the program.
“I think this will continue the digital divide,” LaPlata County Commissioner Matt Salka said during the CTC meeting in December. “Every dollar of annual right-of-way fees paid to CDOT will result in fewer unserved locations receiving new service.”
SB-91 would have required that CDOT’s permit fee not exceed the department’s annual costs related to permit administration. CDOT could only seek to receive fair market value for the rights-of-way if Colorado’s attorney general determined that the state ban conflicted with federal law. Even then, CDOT would have been required to set the fair market value at a level that did not exceed the lowest rate set by any other state.
The bill also introduced a “timer” to speed up deployment and would have required CDOT to act on a permit application within 30 days. Additionally, the legislation would have required CDOT to specify a 30-year term for permits and would have prevented the department from requiring recipients to install additional fiber for third-party use.
Sen. Byron Pelton (R-Sterling), who co-sponsored SB-91, said CDOT is seeking exorbitant fees. “It seems to me that CDOT wants to take the money that comes from the federal government for broadband,” he said. CDOT officials argued that state law requires them to find a fair market value for state rights-of-way used by private companies.
It’s unfortunate that SB-91 narrowly missed consideration by the entire Colorado Senate, given that it included provisions that would not only reduce costs, but also cut red tape to speed broadband deployment. Hopefully, Colorado lawmakers will try to reintroduce a similar bill in 2025.
Johnny Kampis is director of telecommunications policy at the Alliance to Protect Taxpayers.
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