(A) No municipality may enforce an ordinance or practice which is inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions of this article, except that:

(1) As of the time of the effective date of this article, any municipality which had entered into a franchise agreement or other contractual agreement with a telecommunications provider prior to December 31, 1997, may continue to collect fees under the franchise agreement or other contractual agreement through December 31, 2003, regardless of whether the franchise agreement or contractual agreement expires prior to December 31, 2003.

(2) Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to interfere with continuing obligations of any franchise or other contractual agreement in the event that the franchise agreement or other contractual agreement should expire after December 31, 2003.

(3) In the event that a municipality collects these fees under a franchise agreement or other contractual agreement herein, the fees shall be in lieu of fees or taxes that might otherwise be authorized by this article.

(4) Any municipality that, as of the effective date of this article, has in effect a business license tax ordinance, adopted prior to December 31, 1997, under which the municipality has been imposing and a telecommunications company has been paying a business license tax higher than that permitted under this article but less than five percent may continue to collect the tax under the ordinance through December 31, 2003, instead of the business license tax permitted under this article.

(5) Any municipality which, by ordinance adopted prior to December 31, 1997, has imposed a business license tax and/or franchise fee on telecommunications companies of five percent or higher of gross income derived from the sale of telecommunications services in the municipality, to which tax and/or fee a telecommunications company has objected, failed to accept, filed suit to oppose, failed to pay any license taxes or franchise fees required thereunder, or paid license taxes or franchise fees under protest, may enforce the ordinance and the ordinance shall continue in full force and effect until December 31, 2003, unless a court of competent jurisdiction declares the ordinance unlawful or invalid. In this event, the municipality is authorized until December 31, 2003, to collect business license taxes and/or franchise fees thereunder, not exceeding three percent of gross income derived from the sale of telecommunications services for the preceding calendar or fiscal year which either originate or terminate in the municipality instead of the business license tax permitted under this article; however, this proviso applies to any business license ordinance and/or telecommunications franchise ordinance notwithstanding that same is amended or has been amended subsequent to December 31, 1997.

(B) The exception to this article described in subsection (A)(5) no longer applies after December 31, 2003.

HISTORY: 1999 Act No. 112, Section 1, eff June 30, 1999.