The editorial in Saturday's West Central Tribune, Follow through on broadband pledge to Minnesota, scolds the Republican Majority in the House for abandoning its commitment to rural communities and residents:
For all their campaigning in 2014 on the importance of rural Minnesota, House Republicans in their budget proposal have chosen to invest $0 for the state's broadband assistance program.
This is very disappointing for everyone in rural Minnesota.
Rural Minnesota will continue to fall behind in broadband access and, in turn, the critical factors of quality of life, education, economic opportunities, access to health care and many other positive benefits.
"We are astonished as to why the House would ignore one of the state's biggest economic development needs," said Willmar City Council member Audrey Nelsen, a member of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities' board. "The lack of high-quality broadband affects communities and regions all across the state."
We agree.
Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, doesn't think so.
He said that wired broadband, which provides high-speed Internet connections, is too costly in sparsely populated areas.
The editors then provide a litany of low service in area counties:
If you don't think this is an issue in west central Minnesota, think again.
Kandiyohi County is third lowest in Minnesota, at only 13.18 percent, in the percentage of households with access to broadband that meets state-speed goals.
Surrounding counties with low access percentages include: Chippewa at 24.47 percent, Yellow Medicine at 25.69, Swift at 30.41, Pope at 31.40 and Renville at 58.29.
Of those counties, parts of Kandiyohi and Renville, and all of Chippewa and Swift Counties are in House District 17A, represented by freshman lawmaker Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg).
The paper urges Miller and other area lawmakers to speak up about the issue:
West central Minnesota Republican members in the House— Dave Baker, Willmar; Tim Miller, Prinsburg; Paul Anderson, Glenwood; Chris Swedzinski, Taunton; and Dean Urdahl, Grove City—need to speak up in their caucus on this issue.
Bluestem finds it unfortunate that they've left out Paul Torkelson, the chair of the bonding committee, who represents part of Renville County. Having a powerful committee chair with control of some public money might actually be a bit more effective than calling on freshmen like Baker and Miller, though Swedzinski is the vice-chair of Torkelson's committee.
Ala Hamilton: will Miller flip-flop on broadband position?
In the case of Miller, we can only wonder what the paper was thinking when the editors asked him to speak up on this issue.
As we posted back in November 2014's Will Tim Miller pay attention to the Coalition of Greater MN Cities about broadband funding?, during his campaign, Miller opposed public funding of broadband. We asked the question in another way in a second post that month, Can Tim Miller represent MN17A's interests if he opposes aid for high-speed rural broadband?
When asked on a Pioneer Public Television debate if the state should work to provide broadband statewide and what tools might the state use, Miller said:
I believe that private industry is doing that work, and if there's anything that state can do, it can facilitate that work for private industry to earn profit so that they can expand high-speed throughout all of this district.
If there are school districts, if there are any public facilities, if there are any regions that need remedial help, I would consider that through legislation, but I would not be in favor of public funding of expanding.
Miller never pledged to use public funding to bring high-speed broadband to greater Minnesota. Quite the opposite.
Perhaps Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake) can give the freshman legislator acting lessons, and Miller, who has volunteered at the Barn Theater in Willmar, can give a tearful speech about flip-flopping on broadband after realizing what it means to his children. That seems to work in humanizing one's image.
Fortunately, as Session Daily's Chris Steller reported in Broadband funds added as jobs and energy bill makes way to House Floor, we may be spared the spectacle of watching the product of those acting lessons:
As approved by the House Taxes Committee Wednesday, HF843, the omnibus job growth and energy affordability finance bill, sponsored by Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington), would have zeroed out funding for the Office of Broadband Development and appropriated $2 million for broadband grants.
But on Friday, the committee adopted two amendments that would increase broadband funding. A Garofalo amendment would appropriate $500,000 over the next biennium for the Office of Broadband Development. A second amendment, from committee chair Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud), would add $8 million to the state’s border-to-border broadband fund. . . .
By adopting the amendment to raise the budget target for the job growth and energy affordability omnibus, the committee raised the total spending target for the biennium to $42.6 billion.
Will Miller object to that spending increase in a fundraising letter, as he did to spending hikes under DFL control of the House? Stay tuned!
Photo: Tim Miller, via Facebook.
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