Can you spare a nickel for open government?

Where did you watch the 68 hours of Assembly debate or the Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill?  The court proceedings in Dane County concerning the lawsuit filed in response to that bill? Did you catch some of the nine hours of the Senate’s session on the Voter ID?  Or did you listen to the hours of discussion in the Senate about concealed carry?

If you saw or heard any of it, thank WisconsinEye.

Even if you saw snippets of these and other political and policy happenings that have taken over our lives during the past five months on your local news, it is highly likely those stations received footage from WisconsinEye. Referencing WisconsinEye has even become the hip thing to do among legislators speaking on the floor of their respective chambers.

While numbers on cable television viewership are unavailable, visits to WisEye.org have grown 10 times since the protests in Madison began. Use by national and international viewers has also jumped significantly.

WisconsinEye is a quasi-public/private cable network that provides coverage of the three branches of Wisconsin’s government, election and campaign coverage and policy programming across the state. It was created by an act of legislation in 1995 to broaden public access to the business of the people. After observing the success of C-SPAN, which covers the same type of programming but on a federal level, Wisconsin leaders felt it was important that people would be able to witness their government in action, 24 hours a day.

Eleven years later the network was given permission to install 70 cameras throughout all the public areas in the Capitol. These video “eyes” capture all the action in the Senate and Assembly chambers and parlors, the governor’s meeting room, the capitol hearing room and Supreme Court.

Chris Long, president of WisconsinEye, brings years of news experience to the network, including a stint at C-SPAN. However, he explains the coverage is not just limited to what is happening in Madison.

“We offer statewide coverage of policy discussions and public affairs programming, ” he said. “And its not just Assembly and Senate sessions. We cover committees, hearings, all three branches of government no matter where they are. Then we move it to the local level, connecting the capitol to the individual communities.”

Even though WisEye was created through legislative action it does not operate with taxpayer funds. Instead, legislators made it privately funded to remove any question of partisan influence.  The business model has half of the network’s operational support coming from cable and other commercial carriers, while the balance comes from private donors statewide.  Foundational support from the Milwaukee area includes the Argosy Foundation (Editor’s note – the Argosy Foundation was founded by Chris Abele, a minority partner in ThirdCoast Digest), Helen Bader Foundation and Northwestern Mutual.

Southeastern Wisconsin is heavily covered by WisconsinEye. Long said that was a conscious decision since this region is the economic engine of the state and that much of the public policy discussed in Madison originates from Milwaukee.

“The MPS leadership debate was being watched throughout the state, because it really was a statewide debate as to how our schools are managed,” Long said. “The Milwaukee economy, schools, Voter ID – you can’t understand the public policy process and implications of these items without being well grounded in what is happening in Milwaukee.”

However, most of southeastern Wisconsin is unable to view the coverage in its optimal medium – cable television. That is due to an ongoing conflict over the fee per viewer requested from TimeWarner Cable and AT&T U-verse.

When WisEye went live in May 2007 it was broadcast on TimeWarner and Charter Cable.  But after the preliminary two-year period, TimeWarner and WisEye could not agree to a long-term agreement and by its charter, WisEye could no longer broadcast on TimeWarner. Coverage continues on Charter channel 995.

Why?  Money. WisEye is governed by charter to have standard rates for service with all cable providers, but TimeWarner and AT&T U-Verse do not agree to the per subscriber fee model. Long says the cost to broadcast would be 5 cents per cable subscriber, which the cable company could (but hopefully would not) pass on to the viewer.

WisconsinEye is available across the state via the Internet, but Long said their equipment is specifically optimized to provide broadcast via cable television.

Sen. Robert Jauch (D-Poplar) blasted TimeWarner in 2009 after WisEye programming was pulled from the cable carrier.

“It’s shameful conduct that is putting profit ahead of people,” Jauch said. “They’re returning democracy to the darkness.”

Long said since February it is perfectly clear how important it is that there be access to WisconsinEye, especially on cable.

“The expense of the Internet is difficult for us to maintain and it actually costs more per visitor,” Long explained, due to broadband width and the speed of downloads. Working with only a $1 million budget, the increasing cost is stretching the network thin.

“Our role as a civic public utility is now being realized and now we are asking TimeWarner and AT&T to support customers and pay five cents per subscriber. The cost for C-SPAN is six cents per subscriber.”

Unlike the public education and government access channels seen on most cable carriers, WisconsinEye is not something TimeWarner is required by the government to carry. So Long and the management of WisEye have started a petition and letter writing campaign to urge TimeWarner and AT&T to pick up the network and resume broacasting.

The campaign, which asks “Would you pay a nickel for open government?” allows WisEye fans to sign an electronic petition and submit a letter to the president of TimeWarner and your legislator to express your support an desire to see the channel on cable TV.

As Americans we don’t have to pay to see our government at work — free and easy access to the people’s business is a right provided to us in both the state and U.S. constitutions.

However, witnessing the government’s business is not always practical for the average citizen.  Most of us work when many meetings and hearings are held, or they can last for hours or days while people would rather be recreating, sleeping or simply living their lives.

I realize most people are not like me – someone who lives to sit in a Senate session or slog through a DNR hearing. I’m so obsessed with government proceedings my email handle is “govfreak.” So for those of you who occasionally want to check in with your legislators and local leaders or have been moved into activism in light of the events since February, WisconsinEye has been a godsend.

Just last week, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that the legislature’s Joint Committee of Conference violated the Open Meetings Law when it held a meeting on March 9 with less than two hours notice and also locked many of the Capitol doors at the same time. This battle will continue on to the state supreme court, and Long promises WisconsinEye will be in the court chambers capturing all the images and sounds of the latest round in the Wisconsin drama.

So the questions is, can you spare a nickel to keep this statewide eye open and available to all citizens?