Verizon trying to pull a fast one on telecom regulation?

Do legislators really want to give consumers a break in broadband and digital-TV service? Or are they just carrying Verizon's water in its Godzilla-vs-Megalon battle with Comcast? FrankSkeffington doesn't buy the consumer-choice argument for a minute:

... I live in one of the 35 communities Verizon presently offers cable to-and I am a Verizon cable subscriber, currently saving about 30% off my combined cable, phone and Internet services I got with Comcast. I followed our local licensing process with Verizon very carefully and it did take us about 15 months from the time Verizon initially applied to the final approval.

BUT about 80% of the delay was all Verizon's fault. It was obvious that Verizon dragged their feet waiting for federal legislation (the same legislation that included the "net neutrality" issue) that would have stripped licensing authority from both the local and state levels. After that went south last Spring, Verizon stalled last summer and filed a petition with the state's Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE) to again give the DTE licensing authority. That effort failed and now they are trying legislation to give DTE final authority. All the while, Verizon drags their feet with local authorities-to prove their point that the local level takes to long! ...

Dan Kennedy sees the bill as a death threat for local public-access channels:

... If the bill to transfer regulatory authority from local communities to the state were to become law, there's no reason to think that funding for local access would be eliminated - it would simply be administered at the state level. But we can see where this is going. With Verizon and Comcast competing, it's easy to foresee the companies telling state regulators that they could charge less if only they didn't have to pay those archaic local-access fees. ...