Funding PBS, et al.
There is a new proposal being floated on how to create a trust for public broadcasting.
PBS President Pat Mitchell and other advocates for public broadcasting are trumpeting legislation in Congress that would create a huge trust fund—perhaps as much as $20 billion—to provide a ready pool of cash for noncommercial stations as well as libraries and universities.
The trust would be generated from a portion of revenues raised by the federal government’s auction of reclaimed TV channels expected in 2008 and other spectrum sales planned in the future.
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Markey’s legislation calls for 30% of the proceeds from spectrum auctions to be earmarked for the fund. The TV spectrum sale, which the wireless industry predicts could raise as much as $30 billion, could on its own generate up to $9 billion for the trust. Coupled with future auctions, Digital Promise predicts the fund could grow as large as $20 billion and generate up to $1.5 billion a year in interest for digital-age educational projects.
If PBS can get rid of its liberal bias then this is something most Republicans will probably support (or at least, would be much more likely to support).
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this sounds like a pretty good idea. i don’t know much about these ‘reclaimed TV channels’ but it sounds promising. i especially like the idea of covering education projects. maybe they could set some more aside to help pay for my tuition.