According to the this St Pete Times editorial and details in this Times article, Hillsborough County has sold out to Bright House Networks by striking a deal instead of suing them for moving the access channels to a higher tier.

The cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa are spending tax payer dollars to fight a change that will be federally mandated to change on February 17, 2009.

How do you rationalize that as responsible spending?

Furthermore the change has actually increased access to government by also providing The Florida Channel on 623 which previously was not available.

While I don't agree with the County using the $150,000 to promote county government, we are getting something in a situation we don't have to be given anything and not wasting money on a legal battle that would be lost anyway.

I think the free advertising would be better utilized if granted to local non profits. The non profit community would be able to use that exposure to help generate more private support instead of depending so heavily on government subsidy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *