Big Bad Billboard Companies do end-run in Congress

UPDATE 6/2/06: Please check the Scenic America website for an update on this issue. We are still working our Congressional representatives to get this amendment removed from the funding bill. It's time we stopped big billboard companies from trying to run our cities! Your help is needed today!

UPDATE 5/24/06: My letter to the editor is in the Birmingham News this morning. Also, the Birmingham City Council passed a resolution yesterday opposing the billboard amendment.

It’s happening a lot in Washington these days: sneak something into an appropriations bill that’s already passed both houses, and create another corporate giveaway. This time it’s the billboard industry, which wants to be able to flout the Highway Beautification Act and get out of obeying the law.

On May 4, as an emergency appropriations bill for hurricane relief was coming out of the Senate headed for conference committee, an amendment “found” its way in. Sen. Bennett of Utah submitted SA3805, which would let non-conforming billboards be re-built if they were destroyed by a hurricane. It’s a blatant attempt by the billboard companies to gut the HWBA so that they can have free reign over our highways, as they did in the bad old days.

This amendment is NOT an appropriation and has no place in this bill. Billboard companies are trying to take advantage of a national disaster to skirt the law and to strong-arm local jurisdictions who are trying to clean up their areas of billboard clutter.

Remember, we’re only talking about billboards that don’t comply with the HWBA. They could not legally be built today. But the law allows these 30+ year-old boards to be removed only by outright purchase or destruction from natural causes. This amendment effectively eliminates natural causes as a way to remove them, leaving communities nearly helpless against permanent billboard blight.

Click here for an excellent editorial in the Orlando Sentinel, and here for an article from Salt Lake City.

Here’s what you can do: Read the excellent summary of this issue from of Scenic America. Check out the comments section on this post to see what some of our members have already told their Senators. At Scenic America, there are action links to send emails to members of congress, asking that this amendment be taken out of the appropriations bill.

If you care about what your cities and roadways look like, you should support ScenicAmerica and local scenic groups like Scenic Alabama. We’re working to represent citizens’ views against the behemoth billboard industry. It’s might be a David v. Goliath fight, but remember who won that one!