This afternoon, the House Ways and Means Committee took up the jobs bill with an updated budget resolution. The amendment proposed $250K per year for the Office and $8M total grants.

I just got word that the amendments are adopted and bill will be moving to the floor. The good news is that broadband is in the budget and that leaves a door open! The bad news is that it’s much less than the Minnesota Broadband Task Force has suggested. To put $8 million in perspective, the ballpark figure for getting ubiquitous broadband in Minnesota is between $900 million and $3 billion.

Here’s a portion of the amendment…

Subd. 9. Broadband Development 8,000,000

$8,000,000 the first year is from the general fund for deposit in the border-to-border broadband fund account created under Minnesota Statutes, section 116J.396, for the purposes provided in Minnesota Statutes, section 116J.395. This is a onetime appropriation and is available until June 30, 2019.