- By Dan Veaner
- Opinions
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Our story this week on rural broadband access ends with this paragraph: "So, the answer to the question of 'when' depends on where you live," (Tompkins County Legislator Pat) Pryor says. "If you happen to live in a rural area where housing density is increasing rapidly or in a town that is actively moving to improve access it will happen sooner. If not, it’s going to take longer and I don’t think anyone can say at this point how much longer. It will up to the community to determine whether its priorities will include the will to make the investment that will be required to attract grant funding to assist in covering the costs of universal access."
Will Lansing shell out for broadband infrastructure? Maybe, maybe not. At least some Town Board members will ask why people who already have cable access should pay so others can get it.
Sound familiar? It should. Lansing has water and lighting districts that are paid for only by the people who are in them. When the Town's new sewer plan is ready to be announced, its success or failure will likely rest on whether the cost to properties within the district will be low enough -- people outside the district won't pay anything for sewer.
Increasingly local governments include Internet when they talk about the kind of infrastructure that will attract the right kind of development to our localities, Lansing included. It is not such a great leap to surmise that these governments will choose to create broadband districts that charge fees that make up the cost and maintenance of the infrastructure, and then charge a usage fee right on your tax bill, just like they do for water.
Will Lansing proactively pursue broadband in this way or some other way? On the one hand the Town has been pushing a growing priority to build a town center that will attract business and offset the property tax losses that are increasingly coming from the AES Cayuga power plant. On the other hand Town legislators have been habitually conservative about raising taxes, especially since the economy hit the wall.
Lansing has had a technology committee for some time, and Town Board members have been encouraging to residents who want to explore options the Town may have. They even have wifi in the Town Hall now, so it is clear our council-people understand the value of broadband access.
As with just about everything else, it's going to come down to one thing. Money. Lansing turned its nose up to a sewer initiative that would have just plain cost too much. That led to the current plan, which is anticipated to come in with a much lower price tag.
Embracing high speed Internet access will likely come down to the same thing. Creating broadband districts may turn out to be the answer. And depending on the kind of broadband infrastructure the Town decides to pursue, it is even possible that people lucky enough to have cable access would want to jump to the municipal option, making high quality high speed Internet access even more affordable.
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