Local view: Taxpayers are on a $56 million hook for the Lake County fiber project
June 4, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Unfortunately, that appears to be reality for Lake County taxpayers as it relates to the $70 million county broadband project.
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There is some history with RUS making ‘loans’ that turned out to be ‘grants’ as needed. Electric co-ops benefited from this ‘assumed conversion’ for many decades when building coal plants. It is good to see the scrutiny and tough questions being asked in this case.
Past performance is not necessarily the best signal of future results any more. Thankfully.
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A publication called CableFAX Daily reports that Commissioner Bergman is now saying “the county has every intention to fulfill its obligations, including paying back ‘every last dime’ if the project fails. So Bergman is telling one story locally – county taxpayers don’t owe anything if the utility fails, and a totally different story to the Washington, DC crowd – county taxpayers will pay back every last dime if the utility fails. Which is it? That is the $56.4 million dollar question. Don’t the taxpayers of Lake County have a right to know the truth?
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