Nofs to L. Brooks: Stop

From MIRS, News and Information About Michigan Government

The chair of the House Energy and Technology Committee wants to stop Oakland County from offering a free wireless Internet connection service to everyone in the county.

Rep. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek) said that while the idea from County Executive L. Brooks Patterson "sounds great and looks great" it is really an anti-competitive concept that gets local government too deeply into the private sector.

Patterson has been touting the concept, which he said would place his county at the head of the hi-tech wireless line. He's in the process of taking bids from a handful of telecommunication companies to move the project along.

Nofs, however, is considering legislation to stop the movement by imposing a moratorium on all wireless expansion all over the state until the Legislature resolves its own debate over the telecommunications act rewrite.

"Quite frankly we don't need county, city, and township governments in the business of trying to control private business and where they invest and when they don't invest. It's picking winners and losers," Nofs argued. And he thinks it impedes the free market by preventing some companies from expanding in the county.

"That's not free enterprise. I don't like it. We need to put in a pause," he argued, while admitting that Patterson may not be happy with the proposed legislation.

The Battle Creek Republican disagrees with government having control of the private sector. Under the Patterson program, the county commissioners would appoint people to help make the wireless decisions and Nof said while he understands the economic development aspect of the proposal, he does not want to limit the number of companies who might want a part of the action, too.

Asked about speculation that this move was a GOP payback for Patterson endorsing Gov. Jennifer Granholm's Single Business tax reform, Nofs said, "this has nothing to do with that."

(Contributed by Senior Capital Correspondent Tim SKUBICK.)