Mankato Free Press ran a recent editorial…

Minnesota, like many states with large swaths of rural areas, will use the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to connect its hundreds of thousands of people without broadband internet.

Minnesota was projected to get $7.4 billion through the legislation, with $6.1 billion of that requiring some level of state matching funds. About $5.3 billion was targeted to transportation infrastructure such as roads, bridges and waterways.

While road projects get the bulk of the money, expanding broadband is one of the highest priorities.

Of the $65 billion targeted to broadband from the law, Minnesota will get about $612 million, an amount that is six times higher than the current state investment. In rural areas, 40% are without adequate broadband speed, according to a state report.

“This will do a lot. It won’t get the entire problem fixed — there is more than $652 million in work to be done — but it will certainly move the needle,” Bill Eckles, CEO of Blue Earth-based Bevcomm, told The Free Press earlier this year. Bevcomm will compete for the federal funding where local matches are required.

Minnesota ranked 29th in the country for the amount of federal broadband funding it will receive, with the top states being Texas, California, Missouri and Michigan. Wisconsin will get about $1 billion and Iowa $400 million.

All Democrats in Minnesota’s congressional delegation voted in favor of the infrastructure bill in November 2021 except Rep. Ilhan Omar. All GOP representatives voted against the bill.

Two of the bigger projects include $25 million to reconstruct or rehabilitate bridges on Interstate 90 in southern Minnesota and $10 million to widen a crash-prone five miles of U.S. Highway 212 west of the Twin Cities.

Because the federal money often requires matching funds from governments or businesses, Minnesota lawmakers last session allocated $200 million in matching funds for any entity that wants to apply for them. Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, was chief author of the legislation and called it a “once in a lifetime” chance to building energy transition infrastructure such as EV-charging stations.