Idaho Governor Abandons Sweeping Rural Broadband Access Plan

An aggressive plan to roll out broadband Internet access service for rural areas of Idaho was apparently killed today, as evidenced by a lack of appropriation or mention of the project in the state's new governor's State of the State address this afternoon.

Some of us in Idaho were particularly disappointed to listen to new Governor Butch Otter's State of the State speech today, in which he laid out his proposed budget for the upcoming legislative session. Last year, the Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor received $5 million in one-time funding, which brought broadband Internet to 73 new communities.

Current Idaho lieutenant governor Jim Risch - who was also lieutenant governor under the previous administration, and was governor of Idaho for seven months after the departure of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to become Secretary of the Interior - had challenged the Department to come up with an aggressive budget for this year. Among other items, the budget had called for $10 million in one-time funding to bring broadband Internet to even more rural communities.

Gov. Otter gave no indication that he would fund that effort, nor any of the other recommendations from the Governor's Science and Technology Committee that had been included in the Department's budget. He did, however, propose spending $10.9 million on an additional dairy research facility in south central Idaho, and $38 million in college scholarships for Idaho students - assuming, of course, that without broadband Internet access these students can even hope to go to college.

Commerce and Labor may have gotten caught in a political war between former opponents Risch and Otter - once Risch announced that he was recommending a fairly generous budget, specifically mentioning the Internet items, Otter felt honor-bound to show his frugality by cutting it, specifically the items Risch mentioned.

There is hope, however; the Governor's budget is only a proposal, and it's up to the Legislature to actually craft and finalize the budget. It was the Legislature who granted the $5 million last year; perhaps they will be at least as foresighted this year.