$50 Dish Grounding Inspection Fee passed by Omaha, Ne

[bobj2004]

This was on the local news tonight and in the local paper.

Omaha is falling way short on the budget so they want to charge all Dishnetwork and DirecTV owners a $50 inspection fee to make sure they are grounded.

Rumor around here has it that the local Cox Cable talked the Council Members into it as they are loosing badly to Dish and DirecTv. Each day there are many new Dishes going up and Cox cant stop it as they only offer Half the number of HD channels.


Quoted form the Omaha World Herald: (with updated Link as of 9/3/09)

http://www.omaha.com/article/20090903/NEWS01/709039958

"Also approved by the council was a new $50 fee for the city to inspect existing and new satellite TVs, which would raise about $2 million."

Link from Local TV:

City Council Passes Budget

====UPDATE==============

There will now be a public hearing on this Sept 15th. All the local retailers for both Dish and DirecTV are tryng to gather up customers to attend.

On a local radio show they had one retailer on who does both Dish and DirecTV installs that was going to the hearing to ask:

Why Cox Cable is also not going to be charged the $50 inspection fee to have there Ground Wires inspected for Cable TV and Telephone installs. The logic is, if everyone requiring a Ground per electrical code were to be charged the $50 then this tax would be fair. Picking on just Sat Dishes gives Cable the edge.

VIDEO: Lead Story on the 6 o Clock News, you wont believe this!
====================
The City Councilman Chris Jerram who proposed the idea Tuesday night out of the blue, was quoted on WOWT Channel 6 tonight as saying the Dishes need inspected as he is worried some may fall off on Kids. Also they act as advertising bill boards for Dish and DirecTV.

The Video is Here: (click on the little blue Camera link under the lead story text or the video box on the right)
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/56753312.html#

 

[Stargazer]

Is that really even legal? What's next? Got to charge a fee to inspect your house's electric, plumbing, construction and everything else as well? Where does it stop?

 

[raoul5788]

In some areas a permit is required to install a dish. If it needs a permit, it can be inspected. Charging a fee to inspect is a whole nother matter!

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Using "their(Omaha's)" logic,what's the difference between putting up a dish for E* or D*,& putting up an outdoor OTA antenna,or FTA satellite dish? Wouldn't they all need to be grounded? I hope I'm not showing my ignorance,but if I was a E* or D* sub in Omaha,I'd challange this fee because it doesn't cover outdoor antennas &/or FTA dishes,it is just singling out E* & D* subs.

 

[y0da]

This does not make me happy.....the more I read the more upset I get.

updated link: http://www.tinyurl.com/evilomaha

I wonder, are they going to drive around and look for dishes everywhere? Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars.

With my 3 dishes, it would cost me $150....every 3 years. No.

 

[Koilvr]

Who voted these moron clowns in office?

 

[DJ Rob]

Wow, that is crazy!

 

[Claude Greiner]

What about Cable installations? Those also have to be grounded too! Lets start charging an inspection fee on that.

 

[AKGolf]

Maybe Dish and Direct will join forces to fight this, if Omaha gets away with it you can bet other cities will do the same.

 

[Nebugeater]

I do not live in Omaha but near it. It does not directly effect me but I can bet it will in the future if this holds. This is passed and if there are no changes it will move to other cities as others have sugested.

If the whole idea is not crazy then the fact that the inspection and fee is EVERY THREE YEARS! not just at install. I will be hard to be convinced that they will really even "inspect" anything, just chrge a fee.

Here is a link to the story from the Omaha World Hearld

Omaha.com - The Omaha World-Herald: Metro/Region - Omaha council OKs budget

[Also approved by the council was a new $50 fee for the city to inspect existing and new satellite TV dishes, which would raise an estimated $2 million.

If you do the math this would imply that there are 40,000 dishes in Omaha.


The power of SatelliteGuys needs to take hold here and everone needs to contact the powers to be in Omaha to voice concern for this type of fee and the descrepancie with Cable or OTA antenna.

Here is the Web site with the contact info for the council
Omaha City Council - Home

And here is how to contact the Mayors office

Mayor Jim Suttle
City of Omaha
Office of the Mayor
1819 Farnam Street
Suite 300
Omaha, NE 68183


Omaha Mayor's Office - Mayor's Hotline


Telephone (402) 444-5555 (Voice)
(402) 996-8490 (TTY / TDD)

EMail Click here

Fax (402) 444-7963

Mail The Mayor's Hotline
Civic Center - Suite 304
1819 Farnam St

 

[lineman20109]

Wouldn't something like this fall under the unreasonable expense rule by the FCC's OTARD? Might be something to look into so this bull crap gets shot down now instead of spreading across the US.

 

[pendragon]

Wouldn't something like this fall under the unreasonable expense rule by the FCC's OTARD?

Quoting the FCC's website:

Q: What is an unreasonable expense?

A: Any requirement to pay a fee to the local authority for a permit to be allowed to install an antenna would be unreasonable because such permits are generally prohibited.

One could also question whether this constitutes an ex post facto law. While someone could certainly call the FCC, I would be surprised if DN and/or DTV didn't take care of this themselves.

 

[JDGJr]

I wonder, are they going to drive around and look for dishes everywhere?

i sure it would be your responsibility to 'volunteer' to be on the inspection list. with a $10,000 fine if you forget to volunteer.

at least these bozos are local - boot 'em out of office!

 

[Stargazer]

How about all those people that do not know about this law that could get fined? Do owners have to tell the city that they have a satellite dish just like how you have to tell them about property that you own or will they come around and determine this themselves? Are they going to make this public notice to give owners a chance to find out about it? I hope those clowns get voted out of office next time. Maybe a campaign needs to be done against those that voted this in.

 

[Nebugeater]

$2,000,000 / $50 = 40,000 units

40,000 / 260 av work days a year = 153.8 units per day

153.8 units / 2 ( number of stated inspectors) = 76.9 inspetions per day


76.9 inspections per day per inspector YA RIGHT

Say they do this over a three year rotation and it is still 25.6 per day


Using their numbers this is totally unreasonable to expect that an inspetion will ever take place, just the attemt to collect a fee.

 

[dennispap]

none of the links for the story are working.

 

[Awohar]

According to the budget article, the measure was proposed by Councilman Chris Jerram. The local voters there need to start a recall election.

 

[socalpanman]

The Sheriff of Sherwood forest lives on. Collecting taxes from the people any way possible to keep the politicians pay checks fat.

This is as bad as any Satellite Tax.
Wonder of Dish and DirecTv will join together to help their customers fight this?

 

[Nebugeater]

According to the budget article, the measure was proposed by Councilman Chris Jerram. The local voters there need to start a recall election.

Try this until they change it again


Omaha.com - The Omaha World-Herald: Metro/Region - No one pleased with new budget

 

[Cband55]

Dudes just pay up, who do you think you are, no one is above the law.