If it is approved, passes both chambers of the legislature, and is signed, it looks like there will be more money coming in the next budget for higher speed internet service in rural Wisconsin.
During a Q & A session at a recent Grow North meeting, a member of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, State Senator Tom Tiffany of Hazelhurst, said the budget panel is funding more broadband...
".....we've authorized in Finance another 15 million dollars for the first year of the biennium. We got it up to about $1.5 million into the Rural Broadband Expansion Grant program, and that requires a match. That $1.5 million has been getting us $5 million with the match that has been going on. We have some terrific communities up here that have taken advantage of it. We're going to expand that to $15 million in the first year of the next biennium...."
Tiffany told the business leaders gathered in Three Lakes to get their business plans together to make a proposal to the state to expand broadband in the Northwoods.