Ohio lawmakers mull a bill to spur rural broadband growth

The Star-Beacon

Ashtabula, Ohio

April 8, 2018

Ohio lawmakers need to push forward on a house bill that would establish $100 million in grants over the next two fiscal years to help spur broadband internet development in rural and underserved locations. The program, which would be called the Ohio Broadband Development Grant Program, would provide up to $5 million per project for broadband connectivity research, testing and planning in underserved areas.

Not surprisingly, the internet service providers are pushing back through their lobbying arm – the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Assoc. – which says the bill doesn’t define “unserved areas” and claims that public entities should not be eligible for the money because it provides an “unfair competitive advantage” to projects they argue couldn’t exists without being subsidized.

If the bill needs a few tweaks, that’s fine, but we hope providers aren’t able to push back and derail this bill. And such a move wouldn’t be without precedence, as last year Verizon turned down $138 million in federal money to improve service for more than 64,000 homes and businesses in rural western Pennsylvania, citing the costs to deploy broadband service in remote locations.

So if the ISPs aren’t willing to do it, we’re fine with the money going to anyone, including public entities, that is.

We have previously argued that in today’s world, the internet is not a luxury item but a necessary utility, and it should be governed and regulated as such – and that means providing access in places where it might not make the most bottom line sense to serve.

Having access to high speed Wi-Fi isn’t something that would be “nice to have” – it is a requirement in today’s modern era to do almost anything from school work to paying bills to farming.

Most people think rural and assume the need is not as great, but for farmers many seed orders are placed through online catalogs while much of the machinery itself uses technology that requires an internet and GPS connection – not to mention apps used to track pesticide and fertilizer applications or weather data.

And as the world of technology continues to evolve, the applications will continue to grow. In Ashtabula County alone, there are numerous ways expanded broadband service would be revolutionary.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Airport could establish an airframe maintenance program. University Hospitals would expand “teleheath” – which allows doctor visits conducted through video conferencing and allows hospitals to monitor vital signs remotely. Parents in rural school districts would be able to have students complete work from home, rather than at school or at the library.

The bill was passed out of the House Finance Committee last month, so it still has a ways to go but it is moving forward. But we need lawmakers, and Rep. John Patterson has been a large proponent, to keep the ball rolling.

This can’t be a bill that stalls out or continues to get pushed back because, far too soon, state representatives and senators will start campaigning for re-election and the legislative agenda will slow to a crawl. The time – and need – is now.

Iowa needs migrants

Quad-City Times

Davenport, Iowa

April 6, 2018

Iowa has a population problem. And yet, this week, Gov. Kim Reynolds readied to sign legislation that explicitly warns migrants from settling here.

Incessantly, Iowans are inundated with a false narrative about a mythical “skills gap.” Its workers aren’t ready for the job market, state officials say. Bleed the four-year state universities dry so Iowa can pump another $18 million into vocational training, they decided this week.

But there is no meaningful skill gap in Iowa, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Throughout the Midwest – where public universities are being transformed into worker preparation centers – manufacturers aren’t short on applicants because of a lack of training, said the conservative newspaper. In fact, Iowa’s community colleges are struggling to keep vocational classes filled.

Iowa just doesn’t have the people.

Unemployment rates throughout the region are the lowest in decades, according to federal data. So-called “full employment” means a given economy has reached its capacity. And Iowa might be perhaps the strongest example of the worker shortage.

Iowa’s population has remained remarkably stable for decades. It was a state of roughly 3 million in 1970, reported the U.S. Census. It was a state of roughly 3 million in 2010. It’s likely to be a state of roughly 3 million in 2020, say federal forecasts. In contrast, Illinois gained almost 2 million residents between 1970 and 2010.

Iowa simply doesn’t grow. And it’s that lack of population growth – reproductive consistency almost unheard of anywhere else in the United States – that poses the greatest challenge to the Hawkeye State’s economy.

Cue Iowa Legislature to do something nonsensical.

This week, lawmakers adopted the not-so-lovingly dubbed “sanctuary cities” bill, legislation in search of a problem. It’s nothing but a brash bit of election-year politicking that would damage relations between local police and the communities they serve. But making Iowa’s communities less safe isn’t the only problem here.

Frankly, the legislation is downright counterproductive in a state that claims to be “open for business.” It only makes sense within a national political framework where brown migrants are scapegoated and denegrated with disturbing regularity.

The facts surrounding Iowa’s population problem are neither new nor revolutionary. Then-Gov. Tom Vilsack two decades came under heavy fire for proposing migrant outreach programs. Vilsack was operating from the very same data set that Iowa faces today.

The only significant change in Iowa’s demographic constitution is found in its substantial growth in its cities. While the overall population has remained essentially steady, urban centers – particularly Des Moines – continually comprise a bigger slice of the state’s stagnant overall population.

It’s Iowa’s small towns that are decaying. And it’s those very same communities about which state lawmakers claim to care. And yet, they adopt racially targeted policies that make stemming the rural out-migration even less likely.

Tariff threats endanger agriculture

Lincoln Journal Star

Lincoln, Neb.

April 6, 2018

The sheer folly of President Donald Trump’s now-infamous quip that “trade wars are easy to win” has been laid bare.

Trade wars produce only losers – and Nebraska now stands to be among the starkest of them.

Following the president’s insistence on levying tariffs against China, the world’s most populous nation proposed a second round of retaliatory tariffs on April 4. The new list includes corn, beef and soybeans – some of Nebraska’s top exports – joining pork from the original proclamation.

For the good of this state, this madness must stop. Americans need adults in the room who recognize the positive effects of trade on our economy mustn’t be superseded by scoring political points.

Tariffs would bring utter disaster to Nebraska’s already struggling agricultural economy. China is the state’s single largest ag trading partner, with $1.4 billion in annual commodities sales representing nearly a quarter of all 2016 farm exports.

China’s choice of those three products targets the Midwest – a core Trump constituency – with almost surgical precision. Nebraska leads the nation in beef exports and ranks third and fifth in corn and soybeans, respectively, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

Other industries, too, would suffer as a result of these tariffs, but none in this state would be harmed as agriculture, which supports one in four jobs.

Nebraska’s Republican congressional delegation and Trump himself, among others, have expressed justified concerns about China’s attempts to skirt intellectual property laws. On that topic, the United States must be stern with China, but roping trade into this discussion wreaks unnecessary collateral damage.

Tariffs, again, are the worst conceivable means of achieving Trump’s desired end.

On imports, they’re taxes ultimately paid by consumers. For exports, producers struggle with vital market access overseas. Both are worse off when political pressures produce protectionism.

The gravity of China’s announcement has also overshadowed the juvenile debacle Trump ignited regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement, another boon for Nebraska. He nonsensically threatened to exit the deal over misplaced blame he heaped on Mexico for Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals – though those aren’t related in the slightest.

What’s most disheartening about these debacles is that they so closely follow a successful trade negotiation by the Trump administration. The KORUS agreement between South Korea and the United States was recently approved after a few points of contention were ironed out by both nations.

That outcome represents the requisite mature, measured approach to improving mutually beneficial trade deals, rather than threatening to nuke them over perceived slights.

A hard line on China’s intellectual property standards is defensible. Stoking the flames for a trade war, particularly given the economic disaster hanging over Nebraska, is downright reckless.