Minneapolis, MN--A list of 32 broadband proposals for stimulus funding in Minnesota totals approximately $400 million, a new Freedom Foundation of Minnesota survey shows. The proposals for grants and loans come from across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, representing just the first round of the broadband stimulus funding sweepstakes underway at the U.S. Commerce and Agriculture Departments. So what would the winners do with their share of the $787 billion stimulus package and what value would taxpayers get for their investment?

Leading the list of dubious projects is a $5.2 million proposal by the city of Minneapolis that includes a provision to provide laptops or iPod Touches to "underserved" residents, courtesy of taxpayers. The proposal targets nearly 5,000 households in Minneapolis public housing high rises that are unable to receive the city's own public WiFi service. Residents who graduate from the first level of the city's so-called Broadband University (BBU Class of 2010) "will be eligible to receive their choice of wifi-enabled devices--laptops or handheld iPod Touches," according to the proposal's executive summary. The plan estimates the number of trainees at 6,300.

The stimulus bill provided a total of $7.2 billion to expand access to and adoption of broadband services nationwide and "help bridge the technological divide and create jobs building Internet infrastructure." While some $4 billion will be dispersed in round one through loans and grants and a combination thereof, it's unclear how many projects will be funded per state.

Many of the proposals' executive summaries are on line at www.broadbandusa.gov, providing a revealing glimpse into one of the largest stimulus spending programs.

The city of Windom, still striving to cash flow the city's five year old public fiber optics network, wants $12.7 million to expand the struggling system to seven nearby communities. Minutes from Windom City Council meetings indicate the system "has been a drag" on city finances, losing $233,000 in 2008, and stating that "the stimulus project has the potential to contribute some revenues to Windomnet."

It would cost taxpayers nearly $10,000 per connection just to provide service to Cook County's 3,400 households and businesses. To put the $33 million proposal in context, North St. Paul voters recently overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to spend about $4,000 per household.

• Other highlights include:
  The University of Minnesota boasts that its $2.8 million project will flat out eliminate "the disparity in broadband awareness and use" and "close the Digital Divide" in four Twin Cities poverty zones.
• Lake County seeks to be the first rural county fiber network in the U.S. to connect every home and institution that is currently served by wired telephone or electrical service. The $33 million blueprint costs about $3,100 for every man, woman and child in Lake County. In an apparent claim that Lake County's 10,609 residents do not pay federal income taxes, the county website states that "no taxpayer funds will be pledged to fund the network."
• The overall costliest plan at $65 million calls for connecting some 8,500 central Minnesota households and businesses in Todd, Morrison, and Mille Lacs counties within five years at an average cost of about $7,600 per subscriber.

Staff at the Minnesota Department of Commerce recently evaluated the proposals under their purview and submitted the state's funding recommendations to the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to meet an October 14th deadline. State officials declined our request to review the proposals and the state's broadband stimulus funding recommendations, citing state law.

"The Minnesota Department of Commerce has been informed by the Minnesota Department of Administration that, pursuant to Minn. Stat. 13.591, subd.4 (2008), documents generated in response to the NTIA's communication to the states on the opportunity to comment on grant proposals submitted under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) are protected nonpublic data until completion of the federal evaluation process and the awards are made," said Alberto Quintela, Jr., attorney for the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

"This is a matter of transparency in government, plain and simple," said Annette Meeks, CEO of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. "We were told that the record-setting stimulus spending would be accompanied by record-setting transparency. Numerous other states have released their recommendations. It's not too late to do the right thing and open up the books in Minnesota."

The federal government has received 2,200 applications for broadband stimulus funding nationwide totaling $28 billion. Reviewers at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments are expected to announce the recipients on a rolling basis beginning on November 7th through the end of December.