Nutmeg details regionalized plan, says accounting safeguards and audits will keep PEG dollars local

Nutmeg Public Access Television told commissioners it is proposing a regionalized model that consolidates master control at its Farmington data center and establishes a proposed Southwestern Connecticut studio while serving multiple franchise areas.

Executive director Joni Wedder said Nutmeg's Farmington master control can create 20–30 channels and could handle programming for satellite studios, and Nutmeg's budget projections show incremental surpluses in 2027–29. "We have put out a scalable plan, that we feel can be broadened," Wedder said. Nutmeg also reported last-year grants of $49,000 (2025) and $40,700 (2024) and warned that PEGpedia funding is smaller and less reliable as the underlying gross-earnings tax base has fallen.

Commissioners and opposing counsel repeatedly pressed Nutmeg on how it will ensure subscriber PEG fees collected in a franchise area are reinvested locally after consolidation. Counsel asked whether a community that loses a physical studio would still get value for the money its subscribers pay. Nutmeg replied it will use CPA-prescribed accounting allocations, independent annual audits, periodic reporting to PURA and studio-use records (producers' addresses and reservation logs) to demonstrate that funds are allocated fairly to the communities that paid them.

Nutmeg also described a rainy-day/reserve strategy for capital needs and said the 2025 net negative operating result ($201,000) largely reflected noncash depreciation and a one-time data-center build out; Nutmeg reported reserves of about $250,000. The authority took evidence on these operational and financial plans; no final decision was announced.