FSF Questions Minn. Removing Required Local Votes on Muni Broadband

Lifting Minnesota limits on municipal broadband “may prove costly to local taxpayers and harmful to consumers of broadband services,” Free State Foundation Director-Policy Studies Seth Cooper blogged Thursday. Gov. Tim Walz (D) last month signed a bill that struck an old law letting municipalities buy or construct telephone exchanges, which also included broadband networks, only if a supermajority approved it in a local referendum election (see 2405240011). “Promoting broadband access to all of a community’s residents is a commendable goal,” Cooper wrote. “But labeling local votes of the people or taxpayer protections ‘barriers’ or ‘roadblocks’ effectively dismisses other important goals such as preserving local government integrity, respecting the will of local residents, and safeguarding taxpayers and beneficiaries of traditional government services.”