Committee hears bill to require reimbursement for broadband and video facility relocations on road projects

The Kansas Senate Utilities Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 57, which would require reimbursement to communications and video service providers when local, state or federal road projects require modification or relocation of their facilities.

Supporters told the committee the bill would create parity between traditional utilities and newer broadband and video providers and ensure relocations become a budgeted part of a federally or state-funded project. Opponents, including county and municipal officials and the Kansas Department of Transportation, warned the change could increase local costs and property taxes and disrupt current right-of-way practices.

Nick Myers, Assistant Reviser, Kansas Revisor of Statutes, told the committee the bill is sectional. He said section 1 would amend KSA 68-402(b) to require contracts involving federal-aid transportation money to include provisions obligating the contracting county, city or political subdivision to pay the costs to relocate communications facilities. "If relocate or modification to a communications facility is required with 1 of these, Federal aid projects, the owner or operator of that communications facility could then bill the county, the city, or the political subdivision, or the secretary of transportation, for the cost that they incurred to relocate that facility and request reimbursement for that cost," Myers said. The bill requires reimbursement to be paid in full within 90 days of a reimbursement…