Broadband 'moonshot' has rural Minnesotans hopeful

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has made the issue of rural broadband a major talking point as she begins her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Gov Tim Walz (D-MN) has promised he’d attack the problem like a “moonshot.” Meanwhile, a Republican-sponsored bill with bipartisan support is making its way through the Minnesota Legislature, promising $35 million a year in each of the next two years for rural broadband upgrades. All the talk about addressing the issue is encouraging, broadband advocates say. But with one in five rural Minnesota households still lacking access to high-speed, wired internet service, there’s a long way to go. Gov Walz's “moonshot” would simply return annual broadband spending to its 2016 level of $35 million. That number dropped to $20 million in 2017 and to zero in 2018 after then-Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN) vetoed the Legislature’s omnibus spending bill. In the budget negotiations that followed, broadband was left on the cutting-room floor. The key difference is that the current proposal runs for two years.