States could not impose new discriminatory taxes on multichannel video...

service of value that is paid directly or indirectly to any State or local taxing authority,” the bill said. The law wouldn’t apply retroactively to taxes imposed before Jan. 1, 2011. The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee, where Sensenbrenner is a senior member. Ranking Member John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, cosponsored the measure. DirecTV and Dish Network supported the bill in a joint statement Wednesday. “This bipartisan legislation will protect consumers and promote competition by preventing the imposition of discriminatory taxes on satellite television and other innovative competitors to cable television,” the companies said. More than 20 states have proposed taxes, and the cable industry has lobbied for raising taxes on satellite households,” Dish and DirecTV said. “Big Cable has made it clear that it is willing to harm consumers -- even their own -- to gain an edge over their competition; this legislation will stop them from doing so.” Dish and DirecTV’s “effort to call out ‘victim’ in this case is nothing more than cover for an effort to maintain a distinct advantage over their competitors that they enjoy under federal law, and to prevent states from rationalizing their tax systems to achieve parity, including downward tax parity,” an NCTA spokesman said. Non-satellite video providers pay “significantly more in taxes” than DBS, because satellite benefits from a “loophole” in the 1996 Telecom Act preempting any local taxation on DBS, the NCTA spokesman said. He said the Sensenbrenner bill is an attempt to mandate DBS’s “competitive advantage.”