From AARP - Folks, we had quite a week last week! We were able to stop the AT&T deregulation bill SB 135/12. I have attached articles below for your perusal. Despite AT&T telling Senators that this bill would not affect your land line service, it would, in fact, do just that. Had this bill been passed last year, and then the storms we had that devastated areas of our state came through, AT&T and other telecom companies could have told people that they were not going to restore their land line and that customers would have to take the companies wireless service with all the bells and whistles (whether you wanted it or not – whether you had access to cell service or not) or you would be out of luck.
The sponsor of the bill, Senator Paul Hornback, and AT&T lobbyist sat in the Senate committee and said that they met with those who were opposed to the bill and included our changes and we were all satisfied. That was not true. We met with AT&T and the sponsor, offered our changes but we never heard back from them. They did not negotiate in good faith. It was quite disappointing to hear them tell the committee members we were all on board. It was also quite disappointing to see everyone on the committee besides Senator Denise Harper Angel vote for the bill. She deserves a thank you.
However, Speaker Greg Stumbo came to the rescue! He always believed it was a bad bill and AARP and Tom Fitzgerald with the Kentucky Resources Council met with Speaker Stumbo and other members of House Leadership to discuss our concerns. They listened. We owe them a great big thank you!
To read more, click here.
