Minnesota stimulus earmarks include iPods
October 22, 2009 Out of a list of 32 broadband proposals for the $400 million Minnesota stimulus spending, one $5.2 million proposal would provide laptops or iPod Touches to "underserved" residents in Minneapolis.[1]
[edit] Proposal
Nearly 5,000 households in Minneapolis public housing high rises would benefit from this proposal. The provision is working to fill the gap created because these people are unable to receive the city's own public WiFi service without devices.
The proposal's summary states that residents of these public housing neighborhoods who graduate from the first level of the city's Broadband University "will be eligible to receive their choice of wifi-enabled devices--laptops or handheld iPod Touches," effecting an estimated 6,300.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan provides $7.2 billion to expand access to and adoption of broadband services nationwide and "help bridge the technological divide and create jobs building Internet infrastructure."
In the first round of spending this money, $4 billion will be dispersed in the form of loans and grants. It remains unclear how many projects will be funded per state.
The proposals' executive summaries are online.[1]
[edit] Other proposals
- The city of Windom has a five-year-old public fiber optics network that is still a city books cash flow problem, dragging down the city finances by $233,000 in 2008. The city is wants $12.7 million to expand the system to seven communities nearby. Taxpayers would pay nearly $10,000 for each connection to provide service to Cook County's 3,400 households and businesses.
- The University of Minnesota says its $2.8 million project will eliminate "the disparity in broadband awareness and use" and "close the Digital Divide" in four Twin Cities poverty zones.
- Lake County wants to be the first rural county fiber network in the U.S. to connect every home and institution currently served by wired telephone or electrical service. This proposal has a $33 million blueprint, costing about $3,100 for every man, woman and child in Lake County, while it has 10,609 residents who do not pay federal income taxes. The county website states that "no taxpayer funds will be pledged to fund the network."
- The most expensive plan is a $65 million proposal calling for connecting about 8,500 central Minnesota households and businesses in Todd, Morrison, and Mille Lacs counties within five years. This will cost an average of about $7,600 per subscriber.[1]
[edit] Evaluation
Staff at the Minnesota Department of Commerce recently evaluated the proposals and submitted the state's funding recommendations to the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
"The Minnesota Department of Commerce has been informed by the Minnesota Department of Administration that, pursuant to Minn. Stat. 13.591, subd.4 (2008), documents generated in response to the NTIA's communication to the states on the opportunity to comment on grant proposals submitted under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) are protected nonpublic data until completion of the federal evaluation process and the awards are made," said Alberto Quintela, Jr., attorney for the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
"This is a matter of transparency in government, plain and simple," said Annette Meeks, CEO of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. "We were told that the record-setting stimulus spending would be accompanied by record-setting transparency. Numerous other states have released their recommendations. It's not too late to do the right thing and open up the books in Minnesota."
The federal government has received 2,200 applications for broadband stimulus funding nationwide, the costs of which come to $28 billion. Reviewers at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments should be announcing the recipients on a rolling basis beginning on November 7 through the end of December.[1]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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