New York State Budget Bill Sets Table for Municipal Broadband

There were some concerns that certain language in New York’s proposed state budget would lock out municipal broadband projects from being able to capitalize on the federal funding bonanza contained in the American Rescue Plan Act and forthcoming money in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. However, the bill that was ultimately signed into law by Gov Kathy Hochul (D-NY) was amended and includes some golden nuggets for municipal broadband. The recently enacted $220 billion budget bill includes $1 billion for the state’s ConnectALL initiative, which Hochul’s office calls “the largest ever investment in New York’s 21st-century infrastructure (that) will leverage public and private investments to connect New Yorkers in rural and urban areas statewide to broadband and establish the first municipal broadband program of its kind in the nation.”