The battle over who provides your digital cable is heating up in the Capitol.
Florida lawmakers have bragged this year that they've "collapsed the pyramid," parlance for putting more decisions in the hands of more members rather than concentrated with the House speaker and Senate president.
So, it peeves Sen. Mike Fasano and Rep. Rene Garcia to see one of the most special-interest laden bills of the session – House legislation opening up Florida's cable markets to phone companies – shuttling through the process.
Both lawmakers held a press conference Wednesday to promote alternative bills they called better alternatives to the telecom legislation that could hit the House floor next week.
They say the telecom companies' bill will allow companies to discriminate by offering cable and broadband packages only to affluent, white neighborhoods, if they want.
The industry bill also allows them to negotiate their franchise agreement with the state instead of local governments.
The phone companies, of course, call the discrimination argument poppycock. And apparently, a large number of House lawmakers with more control over the process agree.
Asked if it was a sign the telephone companies that outspent every other industry lobbying Florida government last year were too powerful, Fasano shrugged.
"Telecom companies have been as aggressive this year, they've hired more lobbyists and spent millions of dollars to promote a cherry-picking bill," the New Port Richey Republican says.
The numbers from last year are daunting.
BellSouth spent up to $1.9 million on Florida lobbyists last year. AT&T, which has since gobbled up BellSouth, spent up to $853,000. Sprint spent up to $446,000. Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile and MCI weren't far behind.
On the other side, cable providers Time Warner and Comcast spent a combined $170,000 to fight back.
All that money couldn't buy a bill last year, when a skeptical Senate refused to pass it.
But this year, consumer groups say momentum is building for it. Both telephone and cable companies have attacked each other with television commercials.
Fasano said fellow Republican Sen. Mike Bennett of Bradenton had promised him a hearing on his bill soon. Bennett also showed up to champion the competing telecom bill two weeks ago.
Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause, says it looks like telecom companies have double-downed on the Legislature this year.
"I would say (the lobbying pressure) is more this year, because it's so intense already," Wilcox said.
And it's only the second week.