Governor Kim Reynolds is calling for the state-owned fiber optic network to be sold “as soon as possible.”
Governor Terry Branstad touted the Iowa Communications Network in 1989 as the cyber highway for K-12 students to take classes they weren’t able to get in their local district. Molly Severn, deputy chief of staff for Iowa’s current governor, estimates the state could get $100 million from selling the fiber network now. “However, that value is only likely to only decrease as time goes on and the infrastructure continues to age,” Severn said. “Meanwhile the taxpayers’ liability to maintain that asset will only increase.”
In the 1990s, several Republican lawmakers called for selling the network, arguing the state was running a telephone company that unfairly competed with the private sector. They also complained the language authorizing construction of the network was included in a catch-all bill at the end of the 1989 session that sped to passage before many lawmakers knew what they were voting on.
In this century, during Branstad’s fourth term in office, the legislature passed a bill calling for the Iowa Communications Network to be sold, but Branstad’s staff determined there were no viable offers. Governor Reynolds’ bill calling for the network’s speedy sale cleared a House subcommittee today. Reynolds’ staff told lawmakers the fiber network could be valuable to a private sector company, particularly in rural areas where broadband access is scarce. Others in the past have suggested there’s also value to acquiring the right of way where the state-owned network’s fiber cables are buried.
