By Pete Hamilton
On April, 01, the Moapa Valley Television Board held a meeting at the Overton Community Center. The purpose of the meeting was to hear objections and comments to the assessment of a $24 annual tax on all residential property through out Moapa Valley.
The tax is intended to raise the needed funds to purchase and maintain a new television broadcast system that complies with the Federally mandated digital television frequencies that will soon come into effect. This new requirement by the federal government will make obsolete, the current (analog) television broadcast equipment used by the Moapa Valley Television Board.
In order to comply with the mandated requirements for future TV broad cast, the board wants each and every residential property owner to pay an annual tax of $24 to keep the board solvent and operating. If the tax is not paid by the property owner, the Board would have the authority to attach a lien to your property.
There was a large turn out of people during the board meeting, most of those were opposed to the tax for a television service they do not want or use. My personal observation only found three or four people present at the meeting that did support the television tax.
One lady stated she felt there were a sufficient number of low income people in the valley that could only afford local television as entertainment, that it was the duty of the property owners to pay for the television board tax and continue to provide television entertainment for those who could not afford it on their own. A second lady gave supportive comments similar to the first, in favor of tax dollars supporting the TV service.
Most of the people against the assessment made statements to the effect that they have not used the service for a multitude of years and have no intention to do so in the future. Many stated they had satellite service or did not use any television service beyond a DVD player or video game. They did not want to pay a tax for a service they believed was only servicing a small portion of the community.
The Board did present a telephone survey that was done in the valley during 2006. Out of the 12,000 to 15,000 residents in Moapa Valley, 299 people responded to the telephone survey. Of those who responded, a percentage supported the Board to remain in service. I apologize for forgetting the percentage in support. Even if it was all 299 people who responded to the survey, that would only be a little more then 2% of the residents in the valley supporting the Board.
How many of the residents are residential property holders, I do not know, I suspect much less then 12,000 people. What I am trying to illustrate is that there are a very small number of people surveyed and the Board is going to force a “user fee” on each residential property owner in the valley, in order to remain in service.
What happened to the idea that our economy is to be based upon a free market system? I thought television broadcasters were paid large sums of money in exchange for broadcast advertising. Yes, the Board stated they tried to get the Las Vegas and Utah television broadcasters to provide the equipment needed to operate the new high definition broadcast. The Board was told, “No, the market in this valley was not big enough.”
What can a valley resident do? Many people at the Board meeting stated they were subscribing to satellite service. Some people did not want any TV service at all.
One lady at the Board meeting stated low income people could not get any other form of entertainment so property owners were obligated to provide the digital TV service. I was reminded by Editor Vernon Robison, that a federal bill will provide vouchers to low income people to purchase a converter to allow an analog TV to receive digital signals. Who does she expect to buy the $400+ high definition TV for the low income people? Where will this all lead, perhaps a tax funded government run TV station such as PBS?
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