A June 12 letter about broadband issues during the 2016 legislative session only serves to further a personal broadband consulting business rather than offer real solutions to bring broadband to homes and businesses that lack adequate service. However, the primary gripe appears to be that the Legislature brought some accountability to the program in the form of a "challenge" process.
It seems to me that a challenge process might prevent broadband grants from being awarded to areas eligible for a federal broadband grant program or, more importantly, from being used in an area that already has broadband available. The letter writer may think it makes sense for limited public dollars to be awarded to duplicate existing broadband services, but I do not and apparently neither does the Democrat-controlled Senate or the governor who signed the broadband legislation and agreed to the funding level as well as the challenge language.
If we are going to use taxpayer dollars to bring broadband to rural areas as this program purports to do, the focus should be on those who cannot get broadband service due to lack of coverage and not those areas that are already eligible for federal funding or that have broadband available. It is time to stop making broadband a political issue. There are legitimate needs in Minnesota, unfortunately rhetoric doesn't help move things forward.
Rep. Joe Hoppe
Chair of House Commerce Committee
