By Keith Whitcomb Jr.
Staff Writer
A proposal aimed at helping people who can’t afford existing broadband internet access won’t be going forward this year.
The Senate Committee on Finance met May 4 to discuss H.360, a bill that would put $100 million towards expanding broadband coverage to underserved areas in the state and create a government board to manage the expansion.
Senator Ann Cummings, D-Washington, is chairwoman of the finance committee. She said Monday that the bill is now in the hands of the Senate Committee on Appropriations which is slated to take it up on Tuesday.
The “Digital Equity and Affordability Program” was a proposed amendment to the House broadband bill proposed by Senator Randy Brock, R-Franklin, a member of the finance committee. He and Cummings both supported the program, which would have set aside $5 million for a broadband core. The money would have trained existing state employees and others to help people without internet access go about securing it, while making available some funds to cover connection fees and monthly bills.
Cummings said that since she and Brock were the only ones in favor of moving forward with the program right now, no vote was taken on the amendment.
Brock said at the May 4 hearing that he doesn’t imagine the subsidy program would carry on forever. The issue his proposal addresses is that there are thousands of people close enough to broadband lines to access them, but who either can’t afford to do so, or who are unaware of low-income programs the internet companies provide.
Tom Evslin, of Broadband Equity NOW!, said the Legislature has heard testimony showing that only 10% of those who qualify for Comcast’s low-income service are using it, meaning the rest likely aren’t aware it exists. The program he and Brock have been pushing for would help those people.
Senator Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, said this proposal has come fairly late in the session and doesn’t seem to line up well with the larger bill where compromises have already been made.
“I’m not comfortable moving forward with this,” she said, adding that she’d like to hear more testimony on it, and that it’s an issue that can be taken up in the next Legislative session. She wasn’t convinced the bill, as amended, would achieve its goals.
Senator Christopher Pearson, P/D- Chittenden, said there are federal programs available at least until the end of 2021 that people can use.
“I am not hearing a whole lot of support for this proposal,” said Cummings. “No one wants to even consider a draft that would give some money to the broadband core to do the outreach?”
Hardy said there are many groups out there, from community action organizations to schools, doing that kind of outreach, and would be hesitant to allocate $5 million to a program where the needs haven’t been fully assessed.
Cummings said the $5 million would cover equipment and subsidies, simply training a core of advisers would likely be cheaper.
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