Panel OKs $55.3 million broadband request

LITTLE ROCK — The Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Thursday approved the state Department of Commerce’s request to use $53.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds for eight broadband grant projects and $2 million for broadband administrative expenses.

The broadband grant projects are in Ashley, Baxter, Chicot, Clark, Columbia, Hot Spring, Logan and Lonoke counties.

On Jan. 25, a legislative subcommittee temporarily delayed action on this request, after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order repealing former Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s executive orders that created the Arkansas American Rescue Plan Steering Committee.

The Joint Budget Committee’s approval of the Department of Commerce’s request on Thursday is the final legislative approval required for using these federal funds for these broadband grant projects and administrative expenses.

In May 2021, Hutchinson signed an executive order creating Arkansas’ American Rescue Plan Steering Committee — made up of nine Hutchinson administration officials and six state lawmakers — to recommend the best uses of $1.57 billion in American Rescue Plan state fiscal recovery funds and $158 million in American Rescue Plan capital project funds.

In March 2021, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that is designed to help the United States recover from the economic and health effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

The state Department of Commerce requested spending authority of $53.3 million in American Rescue Plan funds to fund eight broadband projects and $2 million in broadband administrative expenses for a total request of $55.3 million, State Broadband Office Director Glen Howie Jr. said in a letter dated Jan. 13 to the Joint Budget Committee’s co-chairs Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and Rep. Lane Jean, R-Magnolia.

The eight broadband grant projects include a $14.2 million grant to Wave Rural Connect LLC/Cox Communication LLC for a total project of $19.6 million in Logan County. Wave Rural Connect and Cox Communications said they will provide matching funds for the grant.

Cox Communications and WAVE Rural Connect ( Arkansas Valley Electric) said they will bring highspeed internet services to more than 1,700 underserved households in portions of rural Logan County, about an hour east of Fort Smith, south of Interstate 40.

Cox and WAVE Rural Connect will soon begin engineering, construction design and necessary permitting for this fiber-based network and will work with local, state and federal agencies to obtain necessary approvals.

The seven other broadband grants include:

• A $ 10.9 million grant to Connect2First Internet for a total project of $14.7 million in Lonoke County.

• A $7.9 million grant to Cable-South Media LLC for a total project of $10.7 million in Ashley County.

• A $6.6 million grant to Ash-ley-Chicot Electric Cooperative Inc. for a total project of $8.8 million in Chicot County.

• A $5.2 million grant to Four States Fiber for a total project of $8 million in Columbia County.

• A $ 4.5 million grant to South Central Connect LLC/ Central Arkansas Telephone Cooperative Inc. for a total project of $6.1 million in Hot Spring County.

• A $ 2.1 million grant to NEXT Powered by NAFC for a total project of $2.9 million in Baxter County.

• A $1.6 million grant to South Central Connect LLC for a total project of $2.2 million in Clark County.

Howie noted in his letter that the Legislative Council in mid-December authorized the use of $ 93.8 million in American Rescue Plan funds for 14 broadband grant projects.

The U.S. Treasury has allocated $158 million to Arkansas from the capital projects fund authorized under the American Rescue Plan with $150.2 million of the award to be used for broadband projects, and the balance of $7.8 million to be used for broadband administrative expenses through 2026, Howie said in his letter.

During the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee meeting Thursday, Jim Hudson, chief of staff at the Department of Commerce, said the Arkansas Rural Connect broadband grant program has awarded about $550 million in federal and state funds for broadband grants across the state.

Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, asked Hudson “how you are doing as far as the statewide response to the need for broadband.”

Hudson said “this particular list was a result of a competitive process.

“Applications were submitted,” he said. “The available money was about $150 million, and we selected the projects that fit the budget and had the highest capability for being deployed relatively soon.

“As I have shared … several times, we have done the easy stuff, so from here and on out it’s harder in terms of the level of effort and more expensive, but no one gets left out,” Hudson said. “With the federal money that comes in from the [federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act], 100% of the state gets covered. Has to be.”

He said state officials are currently working on a digital equity plan required by the federal government.

“Once we have complete 100% deployment to all the households in the state, the excess [federal] funds … can then be used to enhance what is available to what they call community anchor institutions. It’s not only just hospitals, but also the clinics, libraries [and] schools,” Hudson said.

Afterward, state Department of Finance and Administration spokesman Scott Hardin said Arkansas’ American Rescue Plan capital projects funds have been committed in full to broadband projects, and as a result there is not any funding that remains unallocated.

Hardin said Arkansas has $ 444 million in American Rescue Plan state recovery funds that remains unallocated.