[G]ov. Phil Scott’s administration is proposing a slew of measures aimed at giving municipalities and communities the tools and funding to build out broadband infrastructure in rural Vermont.
The administration’s package of proposals, which they outlined to lawmakers this week, would include an infusion of about $1.5 million in additional spending on broadband-related expansion projects, and regulatory changes it says would spur buildout of fiber, or wireless internet infrastructure.
The governor has proposed putting an additional $1 million into the state’s connectivity fund which would pay internet service providers who do not have a financial incentive to expand to areas underserved by broadband companies.
About $540,000 would be harnessed to create a new loan program for “start up” broadband providers that would be administered by and funded through the Vermont Economic Development Authority.
The program would lend up to 90 percent of a broadband project’s costs for projects up to $2 million. Administration officials say it would inspire nonprofits and small businesses to build broadband infrastructure in areas where it is lacking.
Six percent of Vermonters, or roughly 20,000 households, don’t have basic access to broadband.
Pitching the loan program to the House Energy and Technology Committee, Ted Brady, deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said offering an incentive to large internet providers to build out broadband in Vermont isn’t enough to provide many of those households with internet connection.
“At even a million dollars a year, at even $10 million a year, you are not going to get there with straight grant dollars connecting hundreds of houses a year,” Brady said. “We need to scale this up, and these startup businesses seem to be a great way to scale up.”
The Scott administration also wants legislators to change a law so that municipalities underserved by broadband providers can use general obligation bonds to pay for broadband projects.
Concern over possible competition between municipalities and internet service providers has led lawmakers to bar towns from using bonds for broadband projects.
But administration officials said Tuesday that the Legislature should give towns who have struggled to get connected a tool to do so.
“The market has done well to get us where we are, but there are gaps that the market is not closing,” said June Tierney, commissioner of the Department of Public Service. “The time is at hand where we need to break this mold and find a new configuration.”
Irv Thomae, chair of ECFiber, a community-owned fiber optic network that serves more than 20 towns, and 3,000 households in eastern Vermont, cautioned against permitting towns to use bonds to pay for broadband.
Thomae said if towns can elect to pay increased taxes to build out broadband it will discourage them from working together to build regional projects like his. Instead, he believes wealthy towns will benefit, and low-income ones will be left behind.
“It’s going to make it possible for a few wealthier communities to make progress but not for their neighbors,” he said after Tuesday’s legislative hearing. “And the greatest need exists in communities that are not economically well-off.”
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, the vice chair of the energy and technology committee, said she was happy to see the governor put broadband proposals and funding on the table this session.
But she plans on proposing additional funding for broadband initiatives including an additional $1 million to fund planning and feasibility studies that communities can use to plan broadband projects.
The administration’s plan would use about $50,000 for planning and feasibility studies.
“It’s a great first step,” Sibilia said of the Scott administration’s broadband plan.
“It is not going to solve our problem and I continue to believe we do not have the proper sense of urgency regarding this issue.”