Tax Proposed to Fund Public Broadcasting

In an effort to free public broadcasting “from improper political and commercial influences,” a private study group today is proposing that federal appropriations to the nation’s noncommercial radio and television stations be replaced with a 2% tax on all factory sales of consumer electronic products and certain communications equipment.

The group also calls for the elimination of the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the nonprofit agency that has funneled congressional appropriations to the public radio and TV systems for the past 20 years.

These sweeping recommendations are contained in an 11-page report--”Public Broadcasting: A National Asset to Be Preserved, Promoted and Protected”--that was prepared by the Working Group for Public Broadcasting, a group of 12 educators, media representatives and independent producers, aided by six observers who have been studying public broadcasting issues for more than a year.

“Public broadcasting is a national asset that must have much more money if it is to produce the excellent and independent programming we demand of it,” said the report’s editor, John Wicklein, director of the Kiplinger Midcareer Program in Public Affairs Reporting at Ohio State University. “But we must fund it in a way that neither government officials nor corporate executives can control the content of its programs.”

The creation of a 2% tax on all factory sales of consumer electronic products and broadcast, studio and related communications equipment would generate, according to the group’s projections, more than $600 million annually--more than twice the $228 million currently appropriated by Congress for public broadcasting. And, the report said, it would have the added value of taking public broadcasting “off the federal budget--no small consideration given the pressures for deficit reduction.” (The $228 million does not count the nearly $57 million appropriated this year as the first installment toward a $200-million satellite overhaul.)

The report is being made public in New York today at a luncheon sponsored by the National Coalition Against Censorship. Copies are being sent to congressional committees involved in public broadcasting as well as to PBS and CPB officials.

Lawrence Sapadin, executive director of the Assn. of Independent Video and Filmmakers, who was one of the group observers, said the report “may start as an academic exercise, but if it gets discussed in policy-making circles and gains credibility, it could become the framework for future legislation.”

Congressional sources said, however, that even the introduction of the report’s proposed Public Broadcasting Act of 1989 would be highly unlikely in the next session, considering that Congress recently passed new funding reauthorization levels for public broadcasting for fiscal years 1991-93.

Besides Wicklein, members of the public broadcasting working group include Ben H. Bagdikian, journalism professor at UC Berkeley; Henry Geller, director of the Center for Public Policy Research in Washington; Larry Daressa, co-chair of the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers, and Ned Schnurman, president of Press and the Public Project in New York.

“After 21 years of operation under the 1967 (Public Broadcasting) Act,” the report said, “we have a public broadcasting system that has no systematic organization. It is nominally noncommercial, but is largely dependent for program money on grants from large corporations. It has no guaranteed government financing, but is perniciously subject to government pressure.”

The report calls for replacing the Corp. for Public Broadcasting with an Independent Public Broadcast Institution, whose governing board “would be selected in a way that would insulate it as far as possible from political influence.”

In an attempt to bring coherence to a complex organization, the institution would operate and expand the radio and television satellite-delivery systems now operated by PBS and National Public Radio.

For television, the institution would “commission, produce, schedule and distribute programs over its TV satellite interconnection. It would take over scheduling functions now supervised by PBS.”

In radio, the new organization would “contract with NPR to produce, commission and distribute programs for a national schedule. . . . Thus, excellent news and analysis programs such as ‘All Things Considered’ and ‘Morning Edition’ and entertainment programs provided by NPR and American Public Radio would be continued,” the report said.

A PBS spokeswoman said President Bruce Christensen did not want to comment without having read the report. There was also no immediate comment from CPB President Donald Ledwig.

The Corp. for Public Broadcasting is governed by 10 members, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, who serve staggered, five-year terms with no more than six members coming from one political party.

The independent institution would have a board of nine. Three members would be “elected representatives of the public broadcasting industry”--one elected by the stations within PBS, the second elected by the stations of NPR and the third elected by independent producers in an election run by an independent producers’ coalition.

Five more public members would be selected by majority vote of a seven-member presidential commission. The commission, which would be headed by the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, would be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. No more than four of its members would be from one political party.

The ninth member of the institution’s board would be its managing director.

Asked about the peculiar timing of the report, coming just after public broadcasting legislation has been enacted, Sapadin indicated the group was hoping for a Democrat to be elected President.