A plan to connect public schools, universities, and business in Idaho with a high-speed broadband network may be delayed after the State Legislature cut the project’s seed money out of its annual budget, the Associated Press is reporting.
The Department of Administration had requested $3-million from the state for the 2010 fiscal year—a sum it hoped to more than triple with federal matching funds and private foundation money—to increase broadband access across the state. This would involve building an “Idaho Education Network”—similar to one in neighboring Utah—that would allow learning institutions to swap interactive videos, among other things.
Although Mike Gwartney, the department’s director, had requested a 69-percent increase from this year’s allocation, the bean counters stymied him, trimming the agency’s take by 1.7 percent instead. –Steve Kolowich
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