After decades of charging only a one-time fee for undersea cables along its coast, Oregon's lawmakers have recently been discussing a missed opportunity for tax revenue. The state is set to charge cable operators a one-time fee for cable installations within three miles of its coastline, and will be funneling that money into its Common School Fund.
The currently existing fee structure dates back to 2001 (25 years ago), and is simply a $5,000 application fee. The new pricing is still undergoing discussion, but the simplified version is $3 per linear foot of cable, plus $7 per each section of bore pipe — the protective structure that covers the portion closest to shore. Oregon's Department of State Lands (DSL) estimates that on a 20-year lease, this would bring in millions per undersea cable over that time span. The DSL did some rough math with Amazon's Bitfrost cable, and came up with a grand total of $1,450,380 for two decades, paid in one lump sum.
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