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2006 TELECOMMUNICATIONS
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
Following is The Business Council's 2006 Legislative
Program. It identifies priority issues to be addressed by the
Committees and Councils during 2006.
Mission Statement
Actively promote public policy, regulatory and tax reform to encourage
increased investment and competition in New York's telecommunications
and information technology industries.
Policy Issues
- Support clarifying language to affirm the Public Service
Commission's (PSC) ability to grant freedom to companies to
flexibly price services as required by the competitive markets,
and to de-tariff optional, discretionary non-basic telecommunications
services.
- Avoid
onerous new statutory or regulatory burdens on landline and
wireless telecommunications service providers (e.g., oppose TTY
give-away programs, oppose free non-published directory listings
for any customer, oppose reduced pricing for independent payphone
providers, oppose service quality penalties, etc.)
- Support
policies that promote unfettered access to multi-tenant buildings
and the public right-of-way.
- Oppose legislation that
would change the state right of way protections provided
under state transportation corporation law.
- Oppose publicly
funded, built and operated telecommunications networks.
- Support
legislation that would set a uniform statewide process for
municipal review of the siting and construction of wireless
service facilities.
- Assure full recovery of expenses
incurred by PSC-regulated entities in response to the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including costs related to
provision of emergency utility service, site cleanup, personnel
expenses and the replacement of buildings, facilities and equipment,
as well as costs necessary to enhance the security of utility
services.
- Support legislation which makes it a felony
for interfering with a person's ability to connect with
an emergency service by intentionally damaging
telecommunications facilities.
- Oppose legislation
that attempts to secure Anti-Joint Bidding legislation.
- Support
legislation which provides for "Joint-Bidding."
- Oppose
legislation that would allow a municipal corporation to recover
damages caused by acts of nature or similar unforeseen circumstances
from telecommunication, wireless and cable companies.
- Support
legislation that would establish an effective and cost-efficient
statewide wireless emergency telecommunication system.
- Oppose
legislation that would regulate service quality standards
of telecommunication corporations.
- Eliminate restrictions
applicable to promotional new product offerings by telecommunications
companies.
Tax Issues
- Support incentives in the form of tax reforms for businesses
that deploy fiber optic cables used in the deployment of broadband
technology.
- Amend the gross receipts and sales taxes on telecommunications
services to conform to national, uniform sourcing rules for determining
in which jurisdiction a transaction occurs for tax purposes and
clarify the tax treatment of charges for telecommunications aggregated
with nontaxable charges for telecommunications.
- Support legislation
that would apply existing statutory reductions of section 183-3
of the tax law to all telecommunications carriers. Current law
penalizes corporations that pay dividends on the par value of
capital stock in the amount of six percent or more and have more
than one million access lines.
- Support the consolidation & simplification
of remittance filings to streamline local tax payments.
- Continue
expansion of the current Section 115 (12A) sales and use tax
exemption for telecommunications equipment to include testing,
training, billing and other ancillary equipment, and energy
required for providing telecommunication services.
- Oppose
legislation which increases or imposes new surcharges on telecommunications
companies and their customers which fund social programs, and
state or local government.
- Support legislation that eliminates
the Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) - section 186a of Article 9
of the NYS Tax Law applicable to revenues of utilities subjected
to the supervision of the Public Service Commission.
- Support
legislation which would reform Article 9 taxation and reduce
the tax burden on telecommunication customers.
- Property
taxes paid by New York's telecommunication corporations
are excessive when compared to parallel corporations in other
states and other corporations within New York. Given the adverse
impact of this disparity on New York's competitive position,
we support appropriate legislation to ameliorate this unfair
burden borne by telecommunication corporations and their customers
to achieve equity and parity with other state's in the country.
- Support
legislation which immediately removes all telecommunication
services from taxation under gross earnings (§184 of the New
York State Tax Law).
- Support an investment tax credit to
provide companies with a deduction for leased equipment.
Click here for the 2006
Legislative Program for all Issue areas.
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