After a few years’ break, the billboard industry is back before the Legislature - and their wish list is bigger and more aggressive than ever.
The House Finance Committee today (May 23) took up a proposed committee substitute for H 581, sponsored by Rep. David Lewis - one of four billboard bills Lewis has sponsored this session. The revised bill combines elements of all four bills (H 578, H 579, H 580 and H 581).
The PCS would give the industry extraordinary powers as well as special compensation in condemnations. Some examples:
- Freedom to roam: Billboard companies could relocate existing billboards to the location of their choosing. Relocation would have to be in the same jurisdiction, but the bill would let billboards be placed in areas where they are not currently allowed.
- Go digital: Companies could switch existing traditional signs to flashing, digital billboards at will, regardless of local regulations. Digital billboards can change every six seconds, which, according to studies, can distract drivers, especially the young and elderly.
- Taxpayers, pay up: If state or local governments require removal of a sign - when replacing a bridge, for example - taxpayers would have to cover the cost of lost advertising revenue, not the sign’s fair market value replacement cost. This differs from what other businesses and homeowners would receive in similar circumstances. Billboard companies have unsuccessfully sought this lucrative concession for years in the courts and Legislature. There is no fiscal note on the bill, but it is expected that this change would take millions out of the state’s transportation budget and could threaten federal transportation funding.
- Swing that ax: The bill would allow billboard companies to cut more trees in more areas, including in medians and at exit ramps, to increase visibility. Dogwoods and redbuds would lose their current protected status.
Billboard companies argue that H 581 will not result in more signage, and that is probably true. But in its current form, the bill would put existing signs beyond the reach of local government, gouge taxpayers, and blight roadsides with obnoxious digital displays even when local communities don’t want them. No new signs might be created, but this measure would allow existing billboards to last forever - and get special treatment.
"This bill is a major giveaway of public money and assets - including taxpayer revenues, the public’s trees, and local government control - to shore up and increase the profitability of an industry that is increasingly becoming obsolete," Molly Diggins, state director of the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, said of the measure.
Although Finance Chairman William Brawley said several citizens had asked to speak on the bill, he allowed only one supporter and one opponent to speak in today’s hearing.
H 581 has no other scheduled stops before going to the House floor. Rep. Lewis said in committee that Finance would be just the first stop, but the committee adjourned without referring the bill to the transportation, environment or judiciary committees.