It's rare that we see varying visions for Greater Minnesota as those we encountered in two articles in local media.
Citizens, small businesses demand broadband
In When the Internet goes down: Legislators get earful about lack of broadband in rural areas, West Central Tribune staff writer Linda Vanderwerf reports:
“This is a huge economic issue,” [Paul] Marquart [DFL-Dilworth] said after listening to the stories. “If we were talking about these issues with electricity or phone, there would be a crisis in rural Minnesota.”
[House Minority Leader Paul] Thissen [DFL-Minneapolis] said he thought the next legislative session would address the needs. “There’s broad and near-universal agreement that we need to make these investments for the state of Minnesota,” he said.
It's good that Thissen says "near-universal agreement," because rural broadband isn't on the mind of one legislator who serves parts of Kandiyohi and Renville Counties, along with all of Chippewa and Swift Counties.
That would be the guy who is not King of Minnesota, Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg.
Miller embraces private prison, rejects public spending for rural broadband
In the August 12 edition of the Clara City Herald (no website, but here's the Facebook entry that mentions the article), Representative Miller talked about the past session and his priorities for the coming session in "Tim Miller reflects on freshman year in legislature." We embed the article below.
This is a curious piece, and not just because of the lede:
With this being his first year as a legislator, everything was new, but Representative Tim Miller of Prinsburg didn't necessarily find a lot of surprises. "There's a lot to learn, there's the whole committee process, different meetings you have, lobbyists who come to your office. We had the majority this session so there's the tendency of lobbyists spending more time in your office because you're a freshman.
He mentions constituent visits in the next paragraph; Bluestem hopes that the lobbyists lollygagging in his office didn't get in the way.
But not one word about broadband. Instead, Miller's been working on re-opening the Corrections Corporation of America's (CCA) private prison in Appleton:
He said they're hoping to get some more work done and go in the right direction for the privately owned Appleton prison. Miller said he's been working on getting that open again soon. "We're working with the state and I won't go into details right now, it's literally been just conversation but the good news is its [sic] conversation we have hadn't since they closed, so we are moving in the right direction, but it's a little premature to start spectulating."
Given that Swift County has hired Goff Public to lobby for not only re-opening the private prison, but also to use state bonding money to do it, and CCA representatives visited Appleton on August 5, as Bluestem reported in Swift Co hires Goff Public to work on reopening CCA private prison to solve state's inmate binge, it appears that matters are moving beyond conversation.
Miller seems gungho to work for securing public money to help CCA, a large corporation incorporated in Maryland and headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, but not for the broadband that small business owners are begging for in areas he represents. That doesn't even merit a mention by Miller. Perhaps he's not concerned about the dollars (and young people) tech-centered businesses capture for small communities; while the Appleton prison provides jobs, the profits generated from state bonding and state contracts will flow to the corporation.
We have heard scuttlebutt that one scenario is for CCA to lease the facility to Minnesota's Department of Corrections to operate under an AFSCME contract, one source suggested to Bluestem. However, even this option requires spending bonding dollars on a private facility.
The politics and campaign contributions of CCA
As we noted in Swift Co hires Goff Public to work on reopening CCA private prison to solve state's inmate binge, the county and the public affairs/lobbying firm Goff Public both used a MinnPost article, Minnesota crime is at a 50-year low. So why are we imprisoning more people than ever?, in which Andy Mannix noted the changes in Minnesota law that have led to the state's inmate binge.
Curiously, CCA and its ALEC allies have worked to increase penalties. Source Watch reports:
Since its founding in 1983, CCA has profited from federal and state policies that have led to a dramatic rise in incarceration and detention in the United States -- a rise of 500 percent over the past thirty years.[5][6][7] As of 2011, around half of all prisoners in state facilities were there for nonviolent crimes, and half of inmates in federal prisons were serving time for drug-related offenses.[8]
Studies have shown that for many offenses, incarceration has little if any impact on public safety, and that time in prison actually increases a person's likelihood of committing more crimes.[9][10]
According to the Justice Policy Institute: "While private prison companies may try to present themselves as just meeting existing "demand" for prison beds and responding to current "market" conditions, in fact they have worked hard over the past decade to create markets for their product."[11]
What exactly did Miller learn from those lobbyists in his office, educating him about the process and their clients' needs? Whatever that might be, he certainly wasn't hearing what those working for rural broadband were saying.
We recognize that this isn't an either-or situation. A legislator could favor both re-opening the prison and providing resources for rural broadband. In Miller's case, as we've reported in posts like Can Tim Miller represent MN17A's interests if he opposes aid for high-speed rural broadband? and "Follow through on broadband pledge to MN"? In campaign, Miller made no-broadband pledge, Miller made his choice some time ago, and his omission of rural broadband as a priority in the most recent article suggests he hasn't changed his mind about not backing one of the two.
For background on Miller's fondness for the private prison (and his confusion about spending for the state's sex offender facilities), see our November 1, 2014 post, Tim Miller's Prairie Correctional Facility flyer: clueless about DHS & DOC funding distinctions.
There's also a campaign finance nuggest here as well, as we reported at the time:
For an older look at the political influence behind prison privatization, check out Jon Collins' report in the old Minnesota Independent . . .
Some CCA donations to Minnesota campaigns might be trickling into Minnesota elections this year, Bluestem has disocvered.. Open Secrets's database for the Republican State Legislative Committee reveals that CCA gave the group two contributions this year ($10,000 on May 16, 2014 and $25,000 on February 21, 2014).
On Halloween, the Republican State Legislative Committee handed out $30,000 to the trick or treaters at the Minnesota Jobs Coalition Legislative Fund (first October 31, 2014 24-hour notice pdf here). The candy joins an earlier $250,000 sent to the group's St. Paul office (Pre-General Report pdf here).
Questions about the ethics of private prisons prompted the launch of the National Prison Divestment Campaign, with $60 million pulled earlier this year, Mother Jones magazine reported in April.
For now, the potential for re-opening the Appleton prison is creating part-time work for lobbyists and political operatives, none of whom live in Western Minnesota. Those small business owners and citizens in rural Minnesota? Speaks for itself.
Here's the Clara City Herald article.
Miller Legislative Review Clara City Herald
Photo: Representative Tim Miller who says he had a lot of lobbyists in his office earlier this year. Apparently the ones working for rural broadband didn't register on the dude.
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