In the latest Aitkin Age, Adam Hookenakker reports in CMCC, 2016 levy discussed by county board, that a county commissioner fact checked Dale Lueck's recital of his caucus' new talking point about federal broadband funds:
Although not on the regular agenda, Rep. Dale Lueck (R-10B) gave the Aitkin County Board of Commissioners his opinion on a couple topics affecting the county at the regular meeting of the board Dec. 8. . . .
Lueck also talked about broadband coming to the county, reporting that Aitkin County will see an expansion of the service through CenturyLink, as it will be spending significant federal funds within the county in the next few years.
Commissioner Anne Marcotte said she spoke with someone at CenturyLink and was shown a map of where the work would take place – around Hill City and Aitkin – not in outlying areas that need coverage the most. She also said the work wouldn’t be done until 2017.
What's that all about? in September, Treacy wrote in Connect America Phase 2 Funding in Minnesota: a blessing and a curse:
. . .Minnesota will receive $85 million to serve 170,355 locations. Here’s the breakdown and specifics:
- PC Carrier – Eligible Locations – Support Amount
- CenturyLink – 114,739 – $54,035,149
- Consolidated Communications – 4,266 – $2,516,502
- Frontier Communications – 46,910 – $27,551,367
- Windstream Communications – 4,440 – $1,519,856
- Total – 170,355 – $85,622,874
If I’ve learned nothing else from the TV show Toddlers in Tiaras, I learned that sometimes you don’t want to win the first crown. Winning the first crown is better than winning nothing, but it usually puts you out of the running for Best in Show. Getting access at speeds of 10/1 is better than what the communities receiving CAF 2 funding have now. And any improvement is an improvement. BUT those speeds are slower than the Minnesota speed goals of 10/5 (The MN Broadband Task Force is looking to update those speeds.) and they seem even slower when you compare them to rural areas that have Gig access, such as Grand Rapids, Red Wing, Lac qui Parle County, New Prague, Rogers, Melrose and others.
Treacy notes that Aitkin County will be getting $3,388,534; the county commissioner drilled down even more--and found that the federal money isn't going to rural areas that are underserved. Nor will the speeds be required to match state goals.
Why is Lueck inserting himself into a county meeting to tout federal funding he had nothing to do with securing? It's a salvage operation for Minnesota House Republicans, who tried to unfund rural broadband and close the state Office of Broadband development.
They would have gotten away with it if it weren't for the public outcry--and those meddling Democrats.
(Back) story of a talking point
Last April, Minnesota House Republicans planned to zero out spending on the the Border to Border (B2B) grant program and eliminate the state Office of Broadband development, PIM's Capitol Report Mike Mullen reported in Jobs and energy panel shifting priorities.
The reaction from rural brandbroad advocated was swift, Blandin Foundation Broadband blogger Ann Treacy noted in “Broadband projects are out” and other reactions to proposed broadband cuts in Minnesota.
The reaction caused Republicans to regroup. At MinnPost, Montevideo native Brian Lambert summarized the situation in How the Legislature is cheating Greater Minnesota on broadband:
. . . So what has happened between last year — when even the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband suggested a $100 million infusion of state money — to this year, when broadband will be lucky to leave St. Paul with $12 million to keep the initiative’s lights on?
Former GOP Rep. Dan Dorman left the House in 2009 and now is executive director of the three-year-old Greater Minnesota Partnership, a consortium of 90 members — including 10 MnSCU campuses and 10 chambers of commerce — that advocate for Greater Minnesota issues. “Basically,” he says, “what you see is that technological ignorance and politics have intertwined. I was in the House for eight years. I’ve seen this firsthand. In general, Republicans don’t like to spend money. If they can find a reason, any reason, not to to spend they’ll cling to it no matter what.” . . .
Dorman’s bet is that broadband expansion leaves the Capitol next week with “$12 to $14 million and the promise to do better next year. Then,” he laughs, “they’ll come back and promise to do better the year after that.”
Lambert noted that the free-market development of wireless--the solution touted by Republicans--was soundly criticized by one of the lobbyists who helped draft broadband legislation during the earlier session:
Chris Henjum, like Dorman an attorney/lobbyist with the St. Paul firm of Flaherty & Hood, helped research and draft last year’s broadband legislation. “As it is today, wireless is still too costly, data is often capped and it doesn’t have the reliability businesses and hospitals need.”
The final figure was $10 million and Republican legislators throughout Greater Minnesota jumped on the broadband wagon. News of the federal funding allowed Republican lawmakers to point to it and appear to be broadband's BFF, even though CAF2 is more of a beard than a real date. Henjum outed that detail in a December 3 tweet:
Keep hearing that fed broadband $$ is sufficient? It funds service that's *less than 1/2* of the speed defined as broadband by FCC (!)
— Chris Henjum (@chrishenjum) December 3, 2015
Greater Minnesota Republicans jump on the broadband wagon
Lueck's talking point is only one example of House Republicans scrambling on this particular issue. This
The new paint on the House Majority broadbandwagon echoes the strategy on education touted in a flood of junk mail from Republican front group Minnesota Jobs Coalition about education funding. House Republicans supported a low budget target for K-12 education, and only a veto on the part of the governor and a special session forced the caucus to vote adequate funding. What do many of the post cards tout? That extra funding. As a lawyer from Appleton concluded: Please don't fall for this fraud.
Two additional examples of GOP broadbandwagon "fraud" from Bluestem's senate district stand out. DFL front group Alliance for a Better Minnesota rips MN17B freshman Dave Baker in Too Little, Too Late for Broadband Funding:
Luckily, Governor Dayton and the DFL-controlled Senate ended up standing up for Greater Minnesota and pushing for broadband funding last session. But due to the resistance to compromise from the GOP House, including Rep. Baker, only about $10 million was passed.
Meanwhile, Rep. Baker’s Kandiyohi County has some of the worst internet access in the state, with only 14% coverage.
Sure, it’s nice that Rep. Baker is finally talking about broadband, but he already made the choice to put ultra-rich property owners ahead of his own neighbors and local businesses having broadband internet access.
Oh snap! Bluestem finds that Baker's new faith in broadband funding pales beside the miracle of state representative Tim Miller's born-again belief in public funding for rural broadband. As we've pointed out for months, the Prinsburg Republican never promised to support broadband in order to get elected.
He campaigned against it.
See our posts from November 2014: Will Tim Miller pay attention to the Coalition of Greater MN Cities about broadband funding? and Can Tim Miller represent MN17A's interests if he opposes aid for high-speed rural broadband?. Miller was sworn in as a state representative in January, and by the time in April when the outrage over the Republican majority's plan to walk away from investments in rural broadband, we reminded readers of Miller's stance in "Follow through on broadband pledge to MN"? In campaign, Miller made no-broadband pledge.
By August, Miller was on the broadband wagon, we reported in Campaigned against it in 2014: in legislative update, Miller joins choir for rural broadband. Border-to-Border Broadband recipient, the Granite Falls-based non-profit, member-owned MVTV Wireless him for his support in MVTV Wireless, A Proud Recipient Of 2015 DEED Border-To-Border Broadband Grant.
We're happy he saw the light on this one. Now if he'll just grow beyond his transphobia and mixed feelings about his own buffer law.
Photo: Grass fed at cows.
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