Institute for Local Self-Reliance Seeks More Minn. Broadband Grant Funding
Minnesota should increase funding for its Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant program, said the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Thursday on its blog, as it released a policy brief. The state also should modify the program's rules and criteria, which in their…
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current state may harm cities, it said. The Minnesota program distributed $30 million to 31 rural communities in its first two years, but the state needs to put more money into the program, said the institute, citing an estimate by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s Broadband Task Force that the state’s unmet broadband need is $900 million to $3.2 billion. “This funding is essential to greater Minnesota communities that are being left behind,” said Christopher Mitchell, director of the Institute’s Community Broadband Initiative. “The current disbursement is only meeting a fraction of the state’s high-speed Internet needs as it is. The program’s rules must be reconsidered to meet economic development goals for the state.”