Pontotoc County Rep. Todd Thomsen is defending his house bill 2616 to strip the auditing powers of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission of the Universal Service Fund money that goes to finance Internet and broadband communications to hospitals, schools and libraries.
“HB 2616 is a measure to reform and modernize the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund and it supports and protects services provided to our hospitals, schools and libraries,” said the Republican legislator. “The only reason that I’m running this bill is because there was a resounding consensus the system is flawed, the process is flawed right now and a great burden to everybody involved.”
But as reported earlier by OK Energy Today, Brandy Wreath, Director of the Corporation Commission’s Public Utilities Division disagrees and believes Thomsen’s bill would remove all transparency from the funds allocated out of a land-line telephone tax. He called it a “pretty scary situation,” and said it would turn funding into a rubber stamp process.
Thomsen contends the existing method of auditing the funding is inefficieint and very burdensome to everybody involved.
“This bill makes it more efficient and more transparent which it currently is not,” added the legislator. “I think if people look at the bill and understand what the measure does, it takes a lot of steps to control the growth of the funds that we put in the language and it also puts in a lot of measures to streamline the process.”
Wreath said Thomsen’s bill could lead to providing special universal services funding to ineligible recipients and increased fees for telecommunication consumers.
“Without ensuring information is complete and accurate, funding may be provided to carriers for ineligible services,” said Wreath. “If funding resources are not used in an appropriate manner, the availability of funds to other entities may be reduced or an increase in fees may be assessed on telecommunication service users.”
The measure won approval in the Senate and is now before the House Appropriations Committee.
Read previous OK Energy Today story with Randy Wreath.
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