Unless the governing body of a political subdivision has submitted to the qualified electors of that political subdivision the question of whether to impose a fee other than a fee for management costs and a majority of the voters approved the fee, a political subdivision may not impose after December 31, 1998, any fee to recover from a telecommunications company for the use of its right of way, other than a fee for its management costs. If requested by a political subdivision, in order to accomplish a necessary public improvement on the right of way, a telecommunications company promptly shall remove its facilities from the public right of way or shall relocate or adjust its facilities within the public right of way at no cost to the political subdivision. Necessary public improvements are limited to construction and maintenance activities directly related to improved transportation and safety. A political subdivision may recover from a telecommunications company only those management costs caused by the telecommunications company activity in the public right of way. A fee or other obligation under this section must be imposed on a competitively neutral basis. When a political subdivision's management costs cannot be attributed to only one entity, those costs must be allocated among all users of the public rights of way, including the political subdivision itself. The allocation must reflect proportionately the costs incurred by the political subdivision as a result of the various types of uses of the public right of way. This section does not prohibit the collection of a franchise fee as permitted in section 49-21-29.
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