Applauding Gage County’s Fiscal Prudence in Broadband Investment

A Nebraska county board recently prevented the waste of taxpayer dollars on a duplicative broadband project by denying a request to use the public right of way.

The Gage County Board voted 5-2 in May to deny a request by Pinpoint Communications to deploy fiberoptic cable in the right of way near Beatrice, Nebraska. The company had received a $535,000 grant from the state’s Broadband Bridge Act through the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) for the project.

The concern with the new grant is that NextLink Internet had already gotten a grant from the state’s allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan to service that area. County board members learned before their vote that NextLink had already installed lines to 23 locations out of 95 locations to be served by the initial grant. Two Republican state senators, Bruce Bostelman and Myron Dorn, previously urged the Gage County Board to reject the proposal by Pinpoint. They hoped to prevent taxpayer waste by allowing the same locations to be served by two different grants.

“When we start using funds to overbuild, we’re taking away funds from somewhere else,” Bostelman told Nebraska Examiner. “We have to make sure every dollar is used in the best place we can.” Bostelman serves on the Nebraska Senate’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.

The $535,000 grant will likely be rescinded and those funds reallocated to other unserved or underserved areas of Nebraska. The Examiner reported that Pinpoint is considering its options to appeal the county’s decision. Pinpoint President Tom Shoemaker asked the county board at its meeting to issue the “simple” permit and not involve itself on the issue of whether the PSC had acted appropriately in issuing the grant.

The county’s move came after the PSC denied an appeal by NextLink in March to reconsider the grant it had awarded Pinpoint. PSC Chairman Dan Watermeier said at the time that the request was filed a day past the deadline. Gage County Commissioner Emily Haxby tried unsuccessfully to convince the PSC to resolve the issue, calling it “a waste of taxpayer dollars.” She said at the meeting she contacted the PSC well before the appeal deadline, but her pleas were met with no response from officials.

Loel Brooks, a local attorney who consults on broadband issues with the county board, said one condition of the Broadband Bridge Act is that grants are not awarded to already served areas.

Overbuilding and duplication of broadband infrastructure via the use of taxpayer money is a concern across the United States. Billions of tax dollars are now being funneled into such projects, with the largest being the $42.5 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.  

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) discovered during an 2022 audit that 15 federal agencies administered more than 100 different broadband funding programs. The GAO pointed out there was a lot of overlap within the programs, which could lead to taxpayer waste, and suggested a better national strategy was needed to guide federal efforts to close the digital divide.

Given the myriad problems with broadband grants, it’s refreshing to see action in Nebraska to prevent overbuilding so that taxpayer funds are allocated where they are most needed. Hopefully, more government leaders in other states will take similar action when it is needed.

Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance