Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Spectrum tax could be DOA

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 01:37:55 -0500

Spectrum tax could be DOA

 Weekly e-newsletter, Feb 28 2003

 The tax is designed to penalize broadcasters who fail to make the DTV transition
deadline.

 It looks like the nation’s terrestrial broadcasters may escape paying a tax on the
publicly owned spectrum that they use at no
 charge for over-the-air broadcasting.

 During a question and answer session at last week’s NAB leadership conference, an
influential Republican lawmaker contended
 the tax is “dead on arrival” in the current Congress. “I don’t see that happening,“ said
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs
 the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee in the House.

 The tax was proposed last month by President Bush in his fiscal-2004 budget and is
designed to penalize broadcasters who fail
 to make the DTV transition deadline. During this period after the deadline passes, the
remaining broadcasters will occupy two
 spectrum sets, thus prohibiting the government from selling the analog spectrum at
auction.

 The tax proposal states that TV stations will begin paying for their analog spectrum in
2007, a year after the DTV deadline.
 Under the bill, stations could pay the government as much as $500 million a year. The NAB
has successfully lobbied lawmakers
 previously against such spectrum tax proposals.

-- www.nab.org
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