Vote YES on HB 2108, the Virginia Broadband Deployment Act - Wireless Infrastructure - Virginia | Council For Citizens Against Government Waste

Vote YES on HB 2108, the Virginia Broadband Deployment Act - Wireless Infrastructure - Virginia

State Action

Virginia House of Delegates

Committee on Commerce and Labor

1000 Bank Street

Richmond, VA 23219

 

Dear Delegate,

On behalf of the more than 44,986 members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I urge you to support H.B. 2108, the Virginia Broadband Deployment Act, which will bring transparency and accountability to state and city broadband spending.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste typically opposes the creation of municipal broadband programs across the nation due to the wasteful nature of these networks that often duplicate and overbuilds on top of existing private sector networks.  However, when these systems are built, it is important that transparency and accountability in spending are in place to prevent further waste of taxpayer dollars. 

H.B. 2108 would provide local governments with the authority to create their own internal government networks to connect municipal services and schools; allow for the expansion of broadband to unserved areas in their communities (a community with less than 10/1 internet speeds); require an unserved community to issue a Request for Proposal to local broadband providers to extend services to a project area, and if no response from local providers after a certain period, permit the local government to build its own network; and adopt the transparency recommendations included in an October 2016 Virginia Public Auditor of Public Accounts review of the issues surrounding the Bristol Virginia Utilities Authority (BVUA). 

The Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts review of BVUA noted that fraud happens when “internal controls are inadequate, policies and procedures do not exist or are not enforced, and collusion occurs.”

H.B. 2108 is designed to ensure that taxpayers are protected by promoting transparency and accountability within municipal broadband networks.  The legislation also requires approval by the General Assembly before taxpayer resources are used to create a network competing with private providers, and removes the FOIA exemption for existing municipal broadband providers, which would mitigate a potential BVUA-like disaster from happening again.

We urge you to support H.B. 2108, which would put in place good government processes that will provide taxpayers with assurances that accountability and transparency will be injected in systems that their funds are being used to build. 

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz

President, CCAGW