Vineland NJ Gets State Grant for Planned GON, Seeks Millions More to Fund It

Vineland, New Jersey, recently secured a $3.7 million state (taxpayer) grant to help pay for a planned government-owned network (GON) in an area already well covered by private providers. The mayor of Vineland, however, indicated that the city still needs more funds if it wants to build its network.

Officials in Vineland announced they received the money from the New Jersey Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Equity grant program, which is doling out $40 million in grants across the state this year. The money for that program originates from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.

Vineland hopes to build a GON to connect the city’s 62,000 residents with broadband, at a cost of $35 million to $40 million. The GON would piggyback off another government project in Cumberland and Salem counties through the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program, which will use $24 million in taxpayer money. As noted in the Taxpayer Protection Alliance’s (TPA) 2023 report, “GON with the Wind II: Frankly, Taxpayers Do Care,” the middle-mile plan calls for nearly 89 miles of fiber in Cumberland County and 64 miles in Salem County, with 15 miles to interconnect both counties and nearly 48 miles to connect the fiber ring to data center points of presence.

Currently, Comcast covers nearly 99 percent of Vineland with speeds of up to 2 gigabits per second, and other wireless and satellite providers help fill in the gaps. Nonetheless, Vineland Mayor Anthony Fanucci claimed in a letter to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that, “I am uniquely concerned with both the reach and the quality of the Broadband services currently furnished to our residents by the major service providers in the region.”

The city’s consultant, Bonfire, alleges that 42 percent of Vineland doesn’t have access to viable and quality broadband service. It is impossible to determine how Bonfire came up with that number because the city refuses to release the feasibility study that the consultant prepared for Vineland.

Both the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation (TPAF) and public interest group Jersey First requested a copy of the study prepared by Bonfire. The request was denied by the city even though the consultant received $221,400 in taxpayer money for its work,

Vineland legal secretary Maryanne Wolf wrote to TPAF that the 54-page report is “deliberative in nature” and the state open-records law “permits the government to withhold documents that reflect advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated.” She also claimed that releasing the report would provide an advantage to competitors. 

The Vineland City Council voted on October 22, 2024, to hire law firm Keller and Heckman LLP to provide legal services regarding the city’s proposed GON, including “refuting attacks by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Jersey First, and other opponents of community broadband initiatives” for a contract that could cost city taxpayers up to $50,000 (at a rate of $800 per hour). Keller and Heckman were also contracted help the city comply with federal and state regulatory requirements and negotiate other legal agreements needed for the project.

As TPA noted in its GON with the Wind report, Vineland did not yet have the funding it needed for its project. Two years later, that appears to still be the case. Fanucci said after the state grant was announced that, “Our team has been working hard with both federal and state entities to secure available grant funding for the project, so we are thrilled those efforts have now paid off. We will continue to seek additional opportunities as they arise.”

TPA has reported extensively on the stumbles of similar projects, with taxpayers or ratepayers left to bear the cost of project failures. A better option for Vineland leaders would be to ditch the project entirely rather than waste taxpayer money on a duplicative broadband project in the city.