You asked (1) if the budgets of public access TV operations public records are subject to the Freedom of Information Act and (2) if a public access operation's budget receives a live feed is automatically increased?

By law, a cable TV company is responsible for providing financial and other types of support for public access programming. A non-profit organization can, with the approval of the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC), assume responsibility for public access operations, but the company is still responsible for providing funding.

CGS § 16-331a(k) requires the company or nonprofit organization responsible for public access operations to report annually to DPUC by February 15. Under DPUC regulations (Conn. Agencies Regs. § 16-331a-13), the report must include the annual public access budget. In practice, the report includes the current and projected budgets according to Mike Coyle, head of DPUC's cable TV unit. Under the Freedom of Information Act, such reports are public records, available for public disclosure. The reports are also available at a DPUC website, http: //www. dpuc. state. ct. us/DPUCINFO. nsf/ByCATV?OpenView.

By law (CGS § 16-331a(k)), DPUC must set the funding level for public access (this funding provides the vast majority of the budgets for public access operations). The default funding level is $ 5 per year per subscriber, adjusted each year for inflation. DPUC can, on its own motion or for good cause, adjust this level up or down by as much as 40% based on criteria established in the law, which are quite broad. These provisions could allow DPUC to increase the funding level if the public access operations received a live feed, but this would not happen automatically.

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