Legislative – 3-13-20

It’s called the Unserved High-Speed Broadband Funding Program and legislation creating it was filed in the form of House Bill 2348 this week. The bill repeals the Mobile Telecommunications Broadband Investment Tax Credit most of which, according to the bill’s sponsors (Representatives Martin Causer and George Dunbar) and the state’s Independent Fiscal Office, was not incenting any investment that wouldn’t have occurred anyway. The $5 million formerly dedicated to the credit program would be administered by the Commonwealth Financing Authority and available to a wide variety of applicants in a competitive grant program.