| HP0732 LD 1063 |
Session - 127th Maine Legislature C "A", Filing Number H-336, Sponsored by
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LR 1013 Item 2 |
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| Bill Tracking, Additional Documents | Chamber Status | ||
Amend the bill by striking out all of section 2 and inserting the following:
‘Sec. 2. 35-A MRSA §9202, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 2005, c. 665, §3, is amended to read:
Amend the bill in section 7 in §9204-A by striking out all of subsection 4 (page 3, lines 12 to 16 in L.D.) and inserting the following:
Amend the bill in section 7 in §9204-A in subsection 8 in the 6th line (page 3, line 36 in L.D.) by inserting after the following: " period." the following: ' When providing grants, direct investment or loans for broadband infrastructure investments, the authority shall give preference to those investments that provide the greatest relative improvement to existing broadband service in an unserved or underserved area.'
Amend the bill by striking out all of section 10.
Amend the bill in section 12 by striking out all of §9217 and inserting the following:
‘ § 9217. Community broadband planning
The authority shall provide funds for broadband planning grants to municipalities, groups of municipalities or nonprofit local or regional community organizations that are providing local or regional economic development programs to develop plans to expand the availability of broadband services in unserved and underserved areas.
The authority shall make all plans developed using grant funds under this section available on the authority's publicly accessible website.
Amend the bill in section 13 in the first and 2nd lines (page 5, lines 25 and 26 in L.D.) by striking out the following: "December 31, 2015" and inserting the following: 'February 15, 2016'
Amend the bill by relettering or renumbering any nonconsecutive Part letter or section number to read consecutively.
summary
This amendment does the following.
1. It removes the expansion of the contribution base of entities paying into the ConnectME Fund by removing changes to the definitions of "communications service" and "communications service provider" and by retaining a provision of current law, proposed to be eliminated in the bill, that allows certain wireless voice or data retail service providers to agree to be assessed as communications service providers.
2. It removes the requirement that broadband investments funded by the ConnectME Authority must benefit multiple communities and specifies that infrastructure investments may be capable of being used either by a single provider or by multiple providers.
3. It directs the ConnectME Authority to give preference when supporting broadband infrastructure to investments that provide the greatest relative improvement to existing broadband service in an unserved or underserved area.
4. It removes the eligibility of private or public organizations for community broadband planning grants and makes nonprofit local or regional community organizations that are providing local or regional economic development programs eligible for those grants.
5. It requires that plans funded through grants include one or more potential network designs, cost estimates, operating models and potential business models based on input from broadband providers and any other parties that submit a design solution in the course of plan development.
6. It requires the ConnectME Authority to ensure that grants are equitably distributed throughout the unserved and underserved areas of the State and that the grants encourage collaboration between multiple communities, but removes the requirement in the bill that the authority adopt rules for these purposes.
7. It specifies that matching funds for broadband planning grants may not consist of in-kind contributions from the municipality or a party with a financial interest in a broadband infrastructure project that would be constructed pursuant to a planning grant.
8. It extends the date for the ConnectME Authority's triennial plan submission from December 31, 2015 to February 15, 2016.