Longmont Ballot Question 2B
Bonds for city’s fiber-optic network
Vote Yes
This one has been in the works for a long time, and it’s finally time
to take the last step toward completing a city-owned, high-speed,
fiber-optic network that is expected to provide residents with Internet
service that is not only cheaper than what the private sector can
offer, but at much faster speeds, 1 gigabit per second. As with 2A,
this one does not involve a tax increase, it would be funded through
user fees alone. Recall that Longmont has had to fight hard for the
right to use its own fiber-optic network, which it installed in 1997.
Thanks to an asinine 2005 law restricting cities’ ability to provide
telecommunications services, Longmont had to ask voters to reinstate
that right in a 2009 ballot question, but that initiative was defeated
thanks to a negative, misleading campaign bankrolled by the telecomm
industry. You may remember the images of sad firefighters in the ads
paid for by No Blank Check, falsely claiming that the measure would take
tax money away from emergency responders. In 2011, the city floated a
similar ballot question, and that initiative passed despite another
round of well-funded opposition from the telecomm industry. Let’s seal
this deal once and for all, in the name of local control and resistance
to outside corporate interests trying to buy our elections. We’ll vote
yes on 2B.
View all of Boulder Weekly’s endorsements here.
