After months of record-breaking inflation, the city of Waterloo wants your vote to add to the inflation burden. With prices of gas, food, housing, and other needs at all-time highs, the city will hold a special election Sept. 13 asking you to approve $20 million in city debt to help build its boondoggle of a city-owned broadband system.
Op-Ed: City seeks bond approval to add to residents’ inflation pressures
Chip Baltimore
August 8, 2022
This piece was originally published in The Courier on August 7th, 2022.
At a current estimated cost of more than $115 million, this broadband system is completely unnecessary and an enormous waste of your tax dollars. The city’s recently-revealed broadband study showed that at least seven private sector companies already provide internet service to Waterloo citizens, and another one has recently announced it is also coming. The city’s system would be the ninth. The study also shows that 98% of Waterloo survey respondents already have internet service, and that the biggest reason the 2% do not have service is because it is too expensive. With the average price of $88.74 per month for 100 Mbps service from the current providers, it is foolish to believe that the city’s broadband service will be materially less expensive, especially considering taxpayers will ultimately fund it.
Despite the study showing that some people believe the current providers’ service is too expensive, the city wants you to vote to force every Waterloo citizen to pay more to build its system. Incredibly, not only can the city raise your property taxes to repay these bonds, but they can also raise your sewer and stormwater rates or your electricity usage rates. You would pay higher rates for all of these city services regardless of whether you choose to use the city broadband service.
Moreover, financial success of the city’s proposal is hardly guaranteed. Even if Waterloo voters decide to contribute $20 million to this folly, and even if the city contributes its entire allocation of $31 million in federal tax dollars, the city must still borrow more than $60 million to build this system. With at least seven competitors already in the market, the city’s system will face substantial competition for its customers as its prices will not likely be much lower than the current providers. Asking taxpayers to pay up to $51 million for a redundant broadband system ought to be unthinkable.