Ripples of optimism sensed from Capitol Hill
Some managers ask for 'nonprofit' option, for help going digitalOriginally published in Current, July 3, 1995
House Republican leaders have begun telling pubcasters that they'll consider extending the "glide path'' of CPB funding to fiscal 1998 and a short period beyond.
A wave of guarded optimism swept through the Public Radio Conference last month as station reps reported on congenial meetings with members of Congress, including master budget-cutter Rep. John Kasich (D-Ohio), chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Even Speaker Newt Gingrich reportedly sounded agreeable to lengthening the glide path, as the buzzphrase puts it, so that pubcasting can make a soft landing in several years rather than crash-land with a zero appropriation two years from now.
Rep. Jack Fields (R-Tex.), chairman of the subcommittee that handles CPB authorization, described Gingrich's views to John Proffitt, g.m. of KUHF-FM, Houston, in a meeting last month.
"The Speaker had assured him that the public broadcasting system does need time to adjust to the new funding paradigms being developed,'' recalls Proffitt. "And the concept of extending the glide path was definitely viable and worth discussing with the leadership.''
Fields also supports the proposal of some public TV stations that they be given the option of becoming "nonprofit'' licensees--permitted to carry advertising but still tax-exempt, according to Proffitt. And Fields is "very encouraging'' to other public TV leaders who are seeking federal help for the transition to digital technology, which the congressman regards as a fiscal boon for the field.
Mary Lou Joseph, NPR v.p. for national affairs, says the station reps who went to the Hill last month could detect a "sea change'' in attitudes since the beginning of the year, which she attributed to strong political support from listeners and viewers.
CPB officials have been getting favorable responses from both Republicans and Democrats, including some who, six months ago, would have laughed at the idea of extending the appropriations beyond fiscal 1997, reports CPB spokesman Michael Schoenfeld. Fields, who talked with CPB President Richard Carlson several times in recent weeks, "is clearly interested in getting a win-win situation for everybody.''
David Brugger, president of America's Public Television Stations (APTS) says the open question is whether a funding plan can be negotiated that will be acceptable to Hill leaders and also provide enough aid to the field.
During the PRC in Washington, NPR officials exhorted station reps to lobby for five more years of phased-down appropriations, which would mean that CPB funding would end in 2002--Gingrich's target for ending the federal deficit.
So far, CPB funding has been authorized only through this year, fiscal 1996, and appropriated only through fiscal 1997. This is unfortunate because unauthorized appropriations are vulnerable to challenge, and the situation will only get more awkward if the big multiagency appropriations bill moves before the Fields subcommittee considers the reauthorization for '97 and '98.
On July 10, Rep. John Porter's House subcommittee will mark up the labor/education appropriations bill that would include money for CPB in fiscal 1998.
So far, CPB funding has been authorized only through this year, fiscal 1996, and appropriated only through fiscal 1997. This is unfortunate for pubcasting because unauthorized appropriations are especially vulnerable to challenge, and the situation will only become more awkward if the big multiagency appropriations bill moves before the Fields subcommittee considers the reauthorization for '97 and '98.
On July 10, Rep. John Porter's House subcommittee will mark up the labor/education appropriations bill that would include money for CPB in fiscal 1998. Then there will be votes in the full Appropriations Committee on July 20 and on the House floor July 25.
Indications from Porter's office are that he'll go ahead with the big appropriations bill even though there are no enacted or even proposed authorizing bills for the CPB money, says NPR's Mary Lou Joseph.
Along with the '98 appropriation, pubcasting's other top priority has been advancing the idea of a multi-billion-dollar trust fund that would be endowed through a new temporary funding mechanism and then cut free from Congress.
The idea holds interest for many members of Congress, station reps learned, but it does not yet have strong advocates willing to push any of the proposed financing mechanisms, many of which have fierce opponents.
Though it may seem a long shot to work up a politically and economically viable trust fund, the idea already has a place in pubcasting lobbyists' basic argument, which goes this way: Even the least friendly congressional leaders say they want public broadcasting to continue, so if they won't consider a trust fund or other adequate revenue sources, "the only alternative at this point is continued appropriations,'' as Brugger has said repeatedly. "So the question is, if there's a better idea, someone ought to propose it.''
Getting to zero
One of the more encouraging encounters on the Hill last month was between Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich and a group of Ohio pubcasters, as reported at the recent Public Radio Conference by Dale Ouzts, g.m. of WOSU-AM/FM/TV, Columbus.
As a Kasich spokesman recalls, "We agreed with them that some of the local station owners out in the hinterlands should have their opportunity to make their views known to Rep. Fields.'' Kasich asked Ouzts for a list of station people to pass on to Fields.
Ouzts said he came up with this list after talking with national leaders: radio licensees John Perry (WKSU, Kent, Ohio), Carl Matthusen (NPR chairman, KJZZ, Mesa, Ariz.) and Wally Smith (KUSC, Los Angeles); joint licensees George Miles (WQED-FM/TV, Pittsburgh), Jack McBride (Nebraska ETV and radio) and Ouzts himself; and TV licensees Bill McCarter (WTTW, Chicago), Burnie Clark (KCTS, Seattle) and Judy Stone (Alabama ETV).
Fields' spokesman did not return calls about the proposed meeting.
The earlier meeting with Kasich was the scene of a small breakthrough, as Ouzts tells it. When John Perry turned the talk to CPB funding, Kasich said forcefully, "The number is zero!''
"What shocked Kasich was that Perry said, 'OK.' He stopped and looked at me--I've known him since he was our youngest state senator. I said, 'Our problem's never been with zero, it's how we get to zero.' He said, 'We can agree to zero?' I said, 'Yeah, sure . . .' ''
The pubcasters asked: why should the federal government get seven years to conquer the deficit and pubcasters get two to compensate for the loss of CPB funding?
"Kasich said, 'Well, CPB does what you tell them, so have them give us a plan.' That was met with derisive laughter.''
"I said, 'They do not do what we tell them, sometimes in fact they do the opposite.' He said he didn't give a bleep about CPB; basically he wanted public broadcasting to survive in Columbus. I said, 'I think you need to meet with managers.' He said, 'get me a list'.''
Help with ATV and advertising
Ouzts and colleagues could speak for themselves and many others, of course, but couldn't definitively guarantee that every pubcaster and every member of Congress will go quietly to zero.
If general support for pubcasting is killed off, for instance, rural legislators and constituents will press for targeted subsidies of stations serving sparsely populated areas, where private-sector earnings are an impossibility.
Already, groups of stations are seeking other specific legislative help from Congress.
A broad coalition of big-city and state-owned TV stations is preparing a request for federal matching grants to help public TV make the expensive transition to the digital technology of high-definition TV and Advanced Television (ATV).
The proposal was endorsed last month in a joint meeting representing the 15 large public TV stations in the informal Community Stations Resource Group (CSRG) and the 30-some state-operated pubcasters of the Organization of State Broadcasting Executives (OSBE).
John Lawson, the former top lobbyist at APTS, now retained by CSRG, said he is working on the proposal but could not discuss it until it's complete.
"The digital conversion is both a tremendous opportunity and a mortal threat to public television,'' Lawson did say. He noted that Rep. Fields repeatedly asserted that the multichannel capability of ATV holds the key to public TV's future.
The "nonprofit'' option
Another group of public TV managers is lobbying for a new class of "nonprofit'' (not "noncommercial'') pubcasters that would be permitted to carry advertising.
Fields already is a backer of the option, Proffitt told Current. The congressman would even support legislation to assure that nonprofit pubcasters would be able to keep their tax-exempt status--no matter where they earned their money, so long as it went back into operations.
The proposal to accept ads on some or all public stations is still debated in the field. Public TV managers continued the debate in remarks at the PBS Summer Planning Meeting in Washington last month.
Mike Hardgrove, president of KETC, St. Louis, advised his colleagues that it's time to take a serious look at advertising, he told Current. And he questioned the basis of the Lehman Brothers projections for CPB that made advertising look like a fiscal loser.
Tom Howe, executive director of the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television, opposed advertising, saying that it "would fundamentally change who we are'' and lead pubcasters to base their program decisions on audience size and demographics. "Noncommercial is what defines us.''
Besides, he contended, he doesn't know why commercial broadcasters would stand for pubcasters maintaining their nonprofit status if they carry commercials.
In an interview, Chuck Allen, president of KAET, Phoenix, ridiculed the feasibility of the idea: "First you go to Congress and say, 'We need a new nonprofit legal definition. Oh yeah, one that exempts us from state as well as federal taxes. And make sure unions still give us the nonprofit rate, and that the Directors Guild doesn't jump to the 'A' card when we hire people from them.' It's just not going to happen.''
Further material for the debate is coming from separate studies commissioned by CPB and APTS, both looking at what would happen to donations and underwriting if public broadcasters begin running commercials.
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