Blog: Say No to the Cablevision Franchise Tax

So it seems now that the Village of Westhampton Beach needs money and they want to take it from us, actually only the 2000 or so residents in the village that subscribe to Cablevision TV.

The village of WHB has requested Cablevision to amend the 10-year franchise agreement, which was renewed in Feb 2011. The village held many meetings to approve the agreement that is in place now. The meetings were held Aug. 6, 2010, Sept. 3,2010, Oct. 1,2010, Nov. 5, 2010, Dec. 2,2009, and Feb. 4 2010 to review the application and the terms of the proposed franchise agreement.  

The current agreement was finally approved and renewed on Feb 2011, but it written into this already approved agreement is Section 18, which allows for our village to go back and choose to have a fee added to our bill. Money collected from the fee would then go back to the village.

This fee, if implemented, will allow Cablevision to tax village cable television subscribers as a so called Franchise Tax. The only way you would have known about this tax would be when you got your bill — If you didn't attend the last village meeting, you would not have known about this.  

One resident got up and asked the simple question to the board, "Why now?"

The village's answers were vague and not specific enough to pass this last Thursday night, so again it was held over for another month.

The numbers did not add up and all board members seemed uninformed by their answers. You can see it for yourself when video from the meeting is posted on the village website.  

It was not made clear on what percentage the village wants to charge, 2 percent, 3 percent or 5 percent. Can this fee change when the village needs more money?

I feel our cable bills are high enough and I do not want part of my cable bill to have any additional tax on it that goes back to our village. I feel the village residents should be informed of this proposal and the terms should be made clear with the numbers and the facts before we pay the price.