Town says it’s out $3M due to lack of cable TV deal
The Town Board estimates cable TV and internet provider Spectrum owes $3 million to Hurley due to operating in the town without an agreement for more than 30 years and depriving the town the opportunity to collect franchise fees.
Councilman Michael Boms said during a board meeting Monday the town is the only municipality in the state that doesn’t have a franchise agreement with its local cable provider.
“According to a comparison to the town of Olive, [which] gets $75,000 a year ... we should have gotten close to $100,000, if not more,” he said.
Under a franchise agreement, a cable company pays a municipal government an agreed-upon amount to provide service in the municipality.
“In the discussions we’re going to have with ... Spectrum ... we [will] insist that either that money comes to us or the rest of the town gets hooked up,” Boms said. “According to [state] law, it says every municipality must have a franchise agreement. So for the past 30 years, (Spectrum predecessor) Time Warner Cable has been illegally charging subscription fees which they shouldn’t have.”
Spectrum parent Charter Communications bought Time Warner Cable in 2016.
Boms said cable company officials previously sent draft franchise agreements to the town but then didn’t make a serious effort to negotiate terms.
“They did not make an attempt to even have a franchise agreement with us,” he said.
Charter issued a statement Tuesday saying a previous franchise agreement with Hurley has expired but the terms have continued in accordance to laws regulating state cable systems.
“Charter has a franchise agreement with the town of Hurley and no franchise fees are past due or owed,” the statement read.
The company contends, in fact, that the expired franchise agreement did not include fees.
Charter spokesman Andrew D. Russell said he did not know when the previous agreement lapsed.
The Charter statement said the company was “working to negotiate a new franchise [agreement with Hurley], and recently we shared another draft agreement with the town.”
“We look forward to meeting with the town’s current leadership to continue these discussions at their convenience,” the statement read.
The Hurley Town Board plans to seek information about the number of Spectrum customers in the town and how many properties have yet to be connected.
Boms said cable company officials have reported the town is “fully serviced.” But areas known to be without service include sections of Dug Hill Road and state Route 28A.
“I teach,” said Boms, a professor at SUNY New Paltz and Mount St. Mary College. “I can’t even contact my students [via the internet]. There are students on the road there that can’t get work done, and this is the 21st century.”