SUN Staff Report
3/19/09
Qwest’s and Windstream’s push to deregulate landline telephone service in New Mexico is quickly losing steam.
The legislative session ends Saturday, and a major deregulation bill backed by the two telecom giants is stuck in the Senate Finance Committee. If passed, the bill would allow companies to opt out of pricing regulations on all but the most basic of landline accounts.
It sailed through its original committee hearings while senators puzzled over the complexities of the telecom industry. But when the bill reached a floor vote last week, a group of progressive senators threw up a roadblock. After two amendments, the bill was finally tossed back to the Senate Finance Committee, a political graveyard for many pieces of legislation.
“There is a large element on the floor that is suspicious of that bill,” Finance Committee Chairman Sen. John Arthur Smith (D-Deming) said.
As of Monday, the bill was still awaiting a hearing in Smith’s committee. He said the proposed deregulation doesn’t really impact the state’s budget, and the Finance Committee is busy dealing with crucial fiscal bills that need to get through.
“We have other priorities,” Smith said.
Smith also said Gov. Bill Richardson has not included the bill on his list of priority legislation.
“It’s not even on the radar screen,” Smith said.
The bill’s opponents weren’t ready to celebrate yet, since the last few days of a legislative session tend to be unpredictable. Instead, they stuck to their talking points.
“It’s not a good bill, and I give credit to the senators who have slowed this thing down and looked at it in great detail,” regulatory attorney and former state Public Regulation Commission candidate Bruce Throne said.
Assistant Attorney General Brian Harris reiterated the point he made in committee hearings — that regulatory decisions should not be a legislative function.
“Our biggest problem is we think it’s poor public policy to remove rate-making authority from the (Commission),” Harris said.