Lafayette Taxpayers Deserve the Truth About Fiber Network

On Wednesday, Sept. 12 Lafayette, Louisiana taxpayers received a gift. That was the day when the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which regulates all utilities in the state, voted to conduct an additional audit of LUS Fiber, Lafayette’s government-owned broadband network.

While the network has undergone audits in the past, a new state-administered audit is critical. Four months ago it was reported the network was racking up debt at the rate of $45,000 per day. When called before the Lafayette Council a few months later, LUS Fiber administrators, in a near miraculous reversal, said the system was in a “strong financial position.” The Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and all taxpayers, should be skeptical of this turn around since system administrators won’t reveal the number of subscribers they have to account for LUS Fiber’s new-found positive position.

A state audit of LUS Fiber would verify those numbers and give taxpayers the full story once and for all on the financial viability of LUS Fiber.

Taxpayers should be skeptical because similar audits of government-owned networks have been conducted in other states have not been so glowing.  For example, earlier this year Utah state legislators received a report on the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA), an 11-city government owned network. The audit showed deep revenue gaps and lagging subscribership. After the report was issued The Salt Lake Tribune wrote, “The audit suggests that providing broadband infrastructure at wholesale to independent content providers may never work.”

A few months later, on Sept. 1, it was reported UTOPIA would be out of operating funds by the end of September. News of the failure, unfortunately, came after at least one city in the UTOPIA had already voted to raise taxes to support the network.  As of October 15, 2012 there has been no publicly available updated financial status report.

Taxpayers in Lafayette deserve to know whether LUS Fiber is in a similar situation before they are asked to invest anymore in the network.

Of course, LUS Fiber Director Terry Huval was not happy with the Public Service Commission’s decision. He told the CCC, “It’s a playground for our opponents and for the people in the private sector who have no regulations like this. We had a perfect audit after three years, and now we’re being asked to do another one.”

The LUS Fiber audit should be complete by next summer. If LUS Fiber is really in a “strong financial position,” Huval’s summer should still be a good one. For taxpayers’ sake, let’s hope that’s the case.