Broadband push falls short

ATLANTA – Efforts to expand broadband into the more sparsely populated areas of the state have likely fizzled for this year. 

Proposals offering potential fixes didn’t gain approval before the General Assembly’s Crossover Day last week, when a bill must make it out of one house to have the best chance of becoming law. 

That has left lawmakers mostly posturing for next year, although House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said this week that he wouldn’t completely rule out action for this year. 

“We certainly haven’t discarded that,” Ralston told reporters. “That’s a critical piece of economic development in rural Georgia and so finding the best way to implement that is the challenge.” 

The bills, which will stay alive for next year, emerged from a legislative committee that met last year to study the digital woes of rural Georgia. 

They included proposals to waive the sales tax on equipment used to deploy broadband in underserved communities. That incentive is meant to lure companies into rural communities that do not offer the more attractive return on investment found elsewhere. 

This perk comes with a price tag. It could amount to a $14 million loss to the state while costing local governments $10.4 million, according to budget analysts. 

The sponsors, Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, and Rep. Don Parsons, R-Marietta, who co-chaired the study panel that met last year, have said they will shift their focus to next year. 

Parsons, though, will do so reluctantly. 

“Two bills for rural broadband will have to wait til next year,” tweeted Parsons, R-Marietta, as the clock ran out Friday. “Again, paid lobbyists for the rural counties worked against rural interests.” 

Parsons elaborated later in a blog post that he was referring to the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, which raised objections over how broadly the tax exemption could be applied. 

Clint Mueller,who is the association’s legislative director, said this week that the group pushed for changes that would ensure companies earn the tax break for work done in overlooked communities.

Otherwise, the providers will likely continue to bypass rural areas for denser hubs, he said.

“That doesn’t do us any good,” Mueller said. “All that is is just a simple giveaway to a corporation – like corporate welfare – because you’re giving them a break and they’re not really doing anything in exchange for it.”

Companies, he said, should have to demonstrate they have invested in a previously underserved community, he said.

As is, the tax exemption would be available for work in any county where at least 10 percent of residents lack service. 

That didn’t fly with several rural lawmakers either. 

“Don’t think I’m not wanting to get broadband, but we can’t open this up for the whole state of Georgia,” Rep. Penny Houston, R-Nashville, said to lawmakers at a recent meeting. 

Parsons argued, though, that even if improvements are made to existing service, it would still lead to more people gaining broadband. 

The bill ultimately languished, as did Gooch’s bill in the Senate.  

Other now-delayed measures would launch a program meant to guide local government on becoming “broadband ready” or “gigabit ready.”

The Senate bill would free electric cooperatives to provide broadband service and require local governments to ease restrictions in the right-of-way – two proposals that are likely to stir up controversy.  

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.