The Minneapolis Star Tribune gives a glimpse at what some of the discussions in the Legislature might be like…

Dayton in December proposed $100 million for the broadband grant program, an effort legislative Democrats say they support.

House Republicans have called for reforms to how the broadband grants are administered, saying Minnesota should do more to leverage existing federal funding for broadband access. GOP legislators, who hold the majority in the House, are awaiting updated budget projections later in February before saying how much they would propose for broadband, said Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, whose committee has jurisdiction over the issue.

“The goals are admirable, but the implementation has been flawed,” said Garofalo, a computer network engineer.

He said the current program subsidizes high-speed connections at too high a cost. “We’re burning through money to provide premier Internet service to a small number of people,” he said. “It’s fiscal insanity … it’s in the state’s best interest to get high-speed bandwidth to as many people at the lowest cost possible.”