Updated Thursday, 6/3/10, 2:30 p.m.
The North Carolina Senate on Thursday adopted a minor amendment and sent on to a final reading a bill that would suspend for a year any new financing for city or town owned high-speed data services. Read the full story

2 citizens spoke at public hearing. Also, GM tells board growth is continuing, and system may not need all of 2010 subsidy.

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

MOORESVILLE – The MI-Connection Communications System board of directors voted Thursday to send Davidson and Mooresville a recommended 2010-11 budget of $15.5 million, including a formal request for a subsidy totaling $6.46 million. But in a bit of good news, the board heard that growth this spring is continuing, and the company may not need all of the $576,000 subsidy it requested for the current fiscal year.

The news and budget vote came during the board’s regular monthly meeting Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at MI-Connection headquarters in Mooresville.

RELATED NEWS: Bill at N.C. legislature would limit towns’ broadband efforts.

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The N.C. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday postponed considering a bill that would force cities and towns to seek voter approval before borrowing money to build or repair high-speed communications networks, the Associated Press reported.

The bill is the latest in series of efforts in recent years by large telecommunications companies to keep local governments from competing in the broadband business. Read the full story

Citizens wonder: How much money, how long, what if?

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

How much will the town’s ownership of the local cable system cost in the coming years? Will the town ever get its money back? Isn’t the trash collection fee being added this year just a “cable tax”? What if the system’s aggressive growth projections don’t pan out?

Residents pressed Town Board members and the Town Manager on those and other questions Tuesday night during a public hearing on the proposed $8.4 million town budget for 2010-11. Read the full story

News reports on Tuesday said customers of AT&T’s U-Verse digital telephone service found no dial tones for more than 4 hours on Tuesday. The service, which uses digital network lines instead of traditional phone lines, is available in parts of 22-states where the company has upgraded its system. Read the full story

The Davidson Town Board meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. for its monthly work session, which will include a public hearing on the 2010-11 town budget. As proposed by Town Manager Leamon Brice last week, the budget would keep taxes flat, but also introduce a new trash collection fee of $206 for a single-family home and $104 for multi-family units.
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The MI-Connection Communications System Board of Directors has scheduled a public hearing Thursday, May 27, on its 2010-11 budget. The meeting begins at 7:30 a.m. at the MI-Connection office, 420 S. Academy St., Mooresville.
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By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Davidson officials are proposing a three-point approach to raising the budget-busting $2 million needed in the coming fiscal year to subsidize the town-owned MI-Connection Communications System: cost-cutting from a previously announced Town Hall restructuring, spending from town reserves, and imposing a new fee for household trash collection.

The proposed 2010-11 budget leaves the tax rate unchanged, at 36.5 cents per $100 of assessed value. But it adds the new trash collection fee, of $206 per year for a single-family home and $104 per year for apartments and condos. Read the full story