The Peachtree City, Georgia city council plans to vote TONIGHT on whether to use taxpayer dollars to build a Municipal Broadband Network for businesses. This will cost millions of your hard-earned tax dollars and put the city’s bond rating and other important services at risk. Tell Peachtree City Mayor Vanessa Fleisch and the Peachtree City Council Members TODAY that you do NOT want your tax dollars used to build a municipal broadband network. That is something the private sector can and does provide.
A few important facts to share with your Council Member:
- Municipal Broadband Networks (also known as Government-Owned Networks or GONs) inevitably cost much more to build and operate than policymakers assume or realize. [New York Law School study]
- Some cities have been driven so far into debt because of their GON that they’ve sold them at huge losses, yet taxpayers were still left to foot the bill. [Provo, Utah]
- Monthly bills are 20% to 50% higher for consumers using GONs than if they used a private broadband provider, according to the American Action Forum.
- Peachtree City simply has better things to spend its money on than a service the private sector ably provides.
- 75 % to 80 % of all GONs fail to make an annual profit. [WiFi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications Network, by Prof. Ron Rizzuto, Univ. of Denver]
- Our Teacher salaries are 9% below the national average
- The Peachtree city council has already voted this year to INCREASE TAXES on residents, collecting an extra $645,000
- Private sector broadband providers have invested more than $1.4 trillion into our nation’s broadband infrastructure and they are investing more every day. [US Telecom Broadband Investment]
Costly Municipal Broadband Failures
Burlington Telecom, VT
- Initial Capital Investment: $33.5 Million
- Current Debt: $17 Million
- Potential subscriber pool is 39,000 households yet just 4,000 have joined the network.
UTOPIA, Utah
- Initial Capital Investment: $135 Million
- Current Debt: $500 Million
- Potential subscriber pool if 62,000 households yet just 8,200 have joined the network.
MI-Connection, NC
- Initial Capital Investment: $92.5 Million
- Current Debt: $69.5 Million
- Potential subscriber pool is 88,000 households yet just 16,000 have joined the network.
CDE Lightband, TN
- Initial Capital Investment: $16 Million
- Current Debt: $20.5 Million
- Potential subscriber pool is 146,000 households yet just 18,000 have joined the network.
Contact Mayor Vanessa Fleisch and the City Council TODAY!
Group email to Mayor, Council & City Manager: [email protected]
Mayor Vanessa Fleisch
Twitter: @vanessafleisch
770-487-7657
Post 1 Council member Eric Imker
770-487-7657
Post 2 Council member Mike King
770-487-7657
Post 3 Council member Kim Learnerd
770-487-7657
Post 4 Council member Terry Ernst
770-487-7657
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