{"id":23150,"date":"2015-09-17T11:35:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T15:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=23150"},"modified":"2015-09-17T13:43:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T17:43:22","slug":"peachtree-ga-stop-city-council-from-wasting-taxpayer-dollars-on-municipal-broadband-network-boondoggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/23150\/peachtree-ga-stop-city-council-from-wasting-taxpayer-dollars-on-municipal-broadband-network-boondoggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Peachtree City, GA:  Stop City Council from Wasting Taxpayer Dollars on Municipal Broadband Network Boondoggle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Peachtree City, Georgia city council plans to vote <a href=\"http:\/\/peachtree-city.org\/DocumentCenter\/View\/7767\">TONIGHT<\/a> on whether to use taxpayer dollars to build a Municipal Broadband Network for businesses. \u00a0This will cost millions of your hard-earned tax dollars and put the city\u2019s bond rating and other important services at risk. \u00a0<strong>Tell Peachtree City Mayor\u00a0Vanessa Fleisch and the Peachtree City Council Members TODAY that you\u00a0do NOT want your tax dollars used to build a municipal broadband network.<\/strong> That is something the private sector can and does provide.<\/p>\n<p>A few important facts to share with your Council Member:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Municipal Broadband Networks (also known as Government-Owned Networks or GONs) inevitably cost much more to build and operate than policymakers assume or\u00a0 realize. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyls.edu\/advanced-communications-law-and-policy-institute\/resource-library\/\">New York Law School study<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>Some cities have been driven so far into debt because of their GON that they\u2019ve sold them at huge losses, yet taxpayers were still left to foot the bill. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibtimes.com\/google-fiber-utah-why-provo-sold-its-39-million-internet-service-google-just-1-1205081\">Provo, Utah<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>Monthly bills are 20% to 50% higher for consumers using GONs than if they used a private broadband provider, according to the <a href=\"file:\/\/\/C:\\Users\\Alyson\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Temporary%20Internet%20Files\\Content.Outlook\\VPUAYDM1\\municipal%20plans%20were%2020%20to%2050%20percent%20more%20costly%20to%20consumers%20than%20private%20broadband%20providers\">American Action Forum<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Peachtree City simply has better things to spend its money on than a service the private sector ably provides.<\/li>\n<li>75 % to 80 % of all GONs fail to make an annual profit. [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartland.org\/policy-documents\/wifi-waste-disaster-municipal-communications-network\">WiFi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications      Network<\/a>, <\/em>by Prof. Ron Rizzuto, Univ. of Denver]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glassdoor.com\/Salaries\/peachtree-city-teacher-salary-SRCH_IL.0,14_IC1155672_KO15,22.htm\">Our Teacher salaries are 9% below the national average<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thecitizen.com\/government-city\/ptc-gets-raise-taxpayers\">The Peachtree city council has already voted this year to INCREASE TAXES on residents, collecting an extra $645,000<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Private sector broadband      providers have invested more than $1.4 trillion into our nation\u2019s      broadband infrastructure and they are investing more every day. [<a href=\"\u2022%09Private%20sector%20broadband%20providers%20have%20invested%20more%20than%20$1.4%20trillion%20into%20our%20nation\u2019s%20broadband%20infrastructure%20and%20they%20are%20investing%20more%20every%20day.\">US Telecom Broadband Investment<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Costly Municipal Broadband Failures<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Burlington Telecom, VT<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Initial Capital      Investment: $33.5 Million<\/li>\n<li>Current Debt: $17      Million<\/li>\n<li>Potential subscriber      pool is 39,000 households yet just 4,000 have joined the network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>UTOPIA, Utah<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Initial Capital      Investment: $135 Million<\/li>\n<li>Current Debt: $500      Million<\/li>\n<li>Potential subscriber      pool if 62,000 households yet just 8,200 have joined the network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>MI-Connection, NC<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Initial Capital      Investment: $92.5 Million<\/li>\n<li>Current Debt: $69.5      Million<\/li>\n<li>Potential subscriber pool      is 88,000 households yet just 16,000 have joined the network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>CDE Lightband, TN<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Initial Capital      Investment: $16 Million<\/li>\n<li>Current Debt: $20.5      Million<\/li>\n<li>Potential subscriber      pool is 146,000 households yet just 18,000 have joined the network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Contact Mayor Vanessa Fleisch and the City Council TODAY!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Group email to Mayor, Council &amp; City Manager:<\/strong> <a href=\"mailto:council@peachtree-city.org\" target=\"_blank\">council@peachtree-city.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mayor Vanessa Fleisch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:vfleisch@peachtree-city.org\" target=\"_blank\">vfleisch@peachtree-city.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Twitter: @vanessafleisch<\/p>\n<p>770-487-7657<\/p>\n<p><strong>Post 1 Council member Eric Imker<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:eimker@peachtree-city.org\" target=\"_blank\">eimker@peachtree-city.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>770-487-7657<\/p>\n<p><strong>Post 2 Council member Mike King<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:mking@peachtree-city.org\" target=\"_blank\">mking@peachtree-city.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>770-487-7657<\/p>\n<p><strong>Post 3 Council member Kim Learnerd<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:klearnerd@peachtree-city.org\" target=\"_blank\">klearnerd@peachtree-city.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>770-487-7657<\/p>\n<p><strong>Post 4 Council member Terry Ernst<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:ternst@peachtree-city.org\" target=\"_blank\">ternst@peachtree-city.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>770-487-7657<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Peachtree City, Georgia city council plans to vote TONIGHT on whether to use taxpayer dollars to build a Municipal Broadband Network for businesses. \u00a0This will cost millions of your hard-earned tax dollars and put the city\u2019s bond rating and other important services at risk. \u00a0Tell Peachtree City Mayor\u00a0Vanessa Fleisch and the Peachtree City Council [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1388,4745,4370],"class_list":["post-23150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-broadband","tag-gons","tag-municipal-broadband"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23150"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23160,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23150\/revisions\/23160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}