Franchise fees are a tax
On July 10, customers of Comcast in Washington and Canonsburg were without television, and some may not have been able to access the internet. Residents using a dish for television service do not seem to have as many problems as cable customers.
But this is not my only complaint. Comcast bills have gone up many times. But cable customers have a municipality franchise fee to pay that satellite dish customers do not. In my case, it amounts to nearly $4 a month, and comes to $48 a year I pay to North Franklin Township.
This fee is a tax, and dish customers do not have such a fee. State legislators approved franchise fees in the 1960s when cable came to our area. It was supposed to be a fee based on a company’s profits, but the costs were ultimately passed along to consumers. It was adopted because cable companies were using existing phone lines, while satelite providers were not.
We always talk about unfair taxation, and little fees like the franchise fee are a perfect example of something that is wrong today. If there were a tax on trucks that picked up garbage from homes along state routes, as opposed to those on township roads, it would be unconstitutional.
It is time for someone to review the legality of continuing the franchise fee. If you ask someone from the cable company billing department about it and the rationale for it, the billing agent has no answer. Our municipalities are quiet about it. So, when a municipality says they did not raise taxes in a given year, they overlook the fact that we often pay a higher franchise fee when the cable company raises its rates.
Joann Diesel
Washington