Greater Minnesota's quest for rural broadband is playing out in the electoral politics of House District 28A, in the state's southeastern corner. Twelve-term state representative Greg Davids is staging one of his rare town hall meetings/listening sessions at 1 p.m. Friday at the Spring Valley Community Center.
Whippersnapper DFL challenger, Spring Grove School Board member and local Sons of Norway lodge vice-president Thomas Trehus has fired back in a fact sheet--and several letter writers aren't happy with Greg Davids' previous lack of attention to rural broadband either.
A search of the Nexis news database by Bluestem underscored their points--and the archives of press releases since Davids' re-election in 2008 are silent about the issue. He's another Minnesota House Republican getting on the broadband wagon--after a session in which the majority caucus proposed eliminating the state Office of Broadband Development while cutting funding for the Border-to-border grant program to zero.
Post Bulletin: the politics of SE MN broadband
At the Rochester Post Bulletin, Heather Carlson reports in Political Notebook: Broadband funding in political spotlight:
Expect funding for broadband infrastructure to be a hot topic in the upcoming legislative session.
Earlier this month, budget officials announced the state's projected budget surplus had swelled to nearly $1.9 billion. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton told reporters on the heels of the surplus news that he'd like $100 million of those dollars dedicated to building broadband infrastructure.
"The Legislature's failure to continue funding for a meaningful, statewide broadband access initiative must be corrected in the next legislative session with a $100 million appropriation," Dayton said. "That's essential to give everyone in Greater Minnesota equal access to the economic future that people in the metropolitan area enjoy."
Meanwhile, Preston Republican Rep. Greg Davids has organized a broadband listening session in Spring Valley next week. Davids said he put the meeting together after hearing from constituents concerned about a lack of reliable high-speed internet in the area.
"As you see people at Big Bob's and you are eating breakfast, you will hear complaints about lack of service, and so I thought, 'You know what? Let's talk about it,'" Davids said. "We need to take a look at it. It's a serious issue for rural Minnesota." . . .
Letter writers: Davids is a little late on broadband wagon
That's some vintage faux-folksy from Davids, but letter writers across the district aren't having much patience with it. In Tuesday's Caledonia Argus, William Fried of Spring Grove writes in Rural broadband is an important issue for the future of our county:
Rural broadband is an important issue for the future of our county.
Without investing in 21st century infrastructure we will continue to fall behind in quality of life, education, economic opportunities, access to health care and many other benefits of connecting to the world through high-speed internet.
Representative Greg Davids and the rest of the Republican MN House Majority leadership are preventing rural areas from joining the 21st century. Representative Davids and his colleagues are wrong on this issue-having dragged their feet for years, initially proposed last year to cut the Rural Broadband Grant Program. Luckily the grant program was funded at $9.8 million, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the non-partisan Task Force recommendation of $200 million to help our counties improve their job creating infrastructure.
Now Representative Davids schedules a last minute Broadband Listening Session for the Friday before Christmas at 1 p.m. in the afternoon. Mr. Davids is trying to put a band-aid on the flesh wound that he ignored for years. He and his Republican colleagues in leadership lack vision on this important issue for rural communities in Houston County.
His sentiments are echoed in Frank Wright's letter in the Fillmore County Journal. The Lanesboro resident writes in Letter about Upcoming broadband listening session...:
Rep. Greg Davids has announced a listening session about rural broadband internet service at 1 p.m. on Friday Dec. 18 at the Spring Valley Community Center. He has even invited an assistant House majority leader to join him.
It’s about time.
The pressing need for better broadband in rural Minnesota is old news. Unfortunately Mr. Davids and the House Republicans have sat on their hands. Fillmore and Houston counties especially have been shortchanged.
I don’t blame our service providers for this problem. In fact, I have been a satisfied DSL customer in Lanesboro for about 15 years. But, many of our rural neighbors do not have access to our level of service. This is wrong. Our local internet service providers need more help to improve rural broadband.
I blame Rep. Davids and his party for our lack of progress. They have opposed adequate funding for rural broadband.
Thanks mostly to Gov. Dayton and pressure from Democrats, some progress has been made. Thirty million in state dollars has been awarded in the past two years for 32 rural projects. But Mr. Davids has failed in his advocacy for his district. Not a dime of this money has helped Fillmore or Houston counties.
This issue is important. Excellent internet infrastructure is key to economic progress in the future. If we want jobs, good education and young people in Fillmore County, this issue needs to be on the front burner.
If you happen to not be working at 1 p.m. on Dec. 18 and have nothing else to do the Friday before Christmas, you may want to drive to Spring Valley to ask Mr. Davids why he is finally pretending to have vision after so many years of dragging his feet on investing in rural broadband infrastructure.
The timing does seem bad in the traditional small towns, where residents are trimming Christmas trees, making lefse and preparing lutefisk (nobody's perfect) in their spare time. It's rare for Davids to hold public meetings (the most recent one we found was 2011), and the mid-day weekday meeting also isn't convenient, as the letter writers point out.
Trehus: just the factsheet
For his part, young Trehus is sticking to the facts in a media advisory sent out Wednesday. In Broadband Internet in Fillmore & Houston Counties, Trehus points out:
What is the problem?
● Rural Minnesota lacks access to broadband and lacks the speeds being offered in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area, placing us at a social and economic disadvantage.
● Only 46.22% of Fillmore County and 71.49% of Houston County are being served by broadband speeds found in the metro area. (At least 10 Mbps download/5 Mbps upload speeds. According to Connect Minnesota as of Oct. 2014)
● The cost of providing broadband service tends to increase as population density decreases, making it unfeasible and unattractive for service providers to invest in rural areas.
Why is this important?
● A connected population creates opportunity for entrepreneurs, job growth, faster, more efficient use of time for a variety of aspects of life (medical, economic, government)
● Broadband internet access will allow seniors to stay in their homes longer by taking advantage of medical devices and technology already available. Broadband also raises the quality of life for seniors, i.e. connecting with loved ones across the globe without leaving their home.
● Broadband internet enables students who live outside of town to do homework and academic research from their home.
● Broadband internet will attract families and businesses to our area. Many industries in 2015 require highspeed internet to operate.
What has been done about it/what can be done about it?
● With the Governor’s support, the 2014 (DFLcontrolled) Legislature provided $20 million in funding for the Office of Broadband Development’s Border to Border Broadband Development Grant Program.
● In 2015 the GOP led House (including Representative Davids R-Preston) wanted to ZERO OUT that Program. After much negative feedback from Greater Minnesota, budget negotiations brought $10,588,000 to the Grant program for 2015, about half of 2014.
● Two entities operating in Fillmore & Houston counties had grant applications in 2015; neither was fulfilled due to the lack of funding of the grant program.
● Governor Dayton and DFL legislative leaders support funding the broadband grant program at $100 million in 2016.
● The Governor’s Task Force on Broadband, as well as organizations such as the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC), recommend the legislature appropriate $200 million in grant monies for the Border to Border Infrastructure grant program.
Davids was defeated in 2006 by LaCrescent-area dairy farmer Ken Tschumper, a DFLer who served one term from 2007-2008.
Images: Minnesota House District 28B (above); Fifth-generation Houston County resident Thomas Trehus (below, via Facebook).
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