Rural Broadband May Be Key To Rural Small Town Survival

The AJC has an article about census estimates showing small towns in rural Georgia are shrinking. A third of small towns in Georgia lost population last year–most of those towns being in south Georgia. Although there’s been hope of a revitalization of rural areas, advances in technologies and a changing economy has made it more difficult:

Rural residents can face numerous challenges, including access to good jobs, transportation, economic opportunities and health care. Small manufacturing jobs have dried up. Modernization and innovation means fewer people are needed in farming jobs.

Larger companies have tended to land around the metro Atlanta and other metro areas in Georgia, so it’s only natural for a younger generation to seek out employment where the jobs are and eventually lay down roots other than their home town.

Enter the importance of rural broadband expansion in Georgia. The Georgia General Assembly laid the groundwork for broadband expansion where there is little or no competition with Georgia’s EMCs being granted the ability to provide high-speed Internet along with legislation to aid in the development of 5G mobile technology. Rural broadband would certainly open up opportunities for a younger generation that live in rural communities access to upward mobility in some industries without having to move away to a larger metropolitan area.

This is a good start, but there’s a big hurdle that these small towns and counties face: money to invest in the infrastructure. Counties and municipalities that want to expand their broadband infrastructure, but they are unable to bridge the financial gap to pay for it–even after grants and matching funds by telecommunication companies. As the tax base of these communities continue to age, counties won’t be able to absorb tax increases that would be used to invest in the infrastructure. These communities know that they need to arrive at making reliable high-speed Internet available, but they don’t quite know how to get there.

This may be a golden opportunity for the Kemp administration to tackle this particular issue as Governor Brian Kemp focused on rural Georgia in his campaign last year. There will likely be a need for state and federal money to help fill the gap for these communities who are unable to come up with the money. The $64,000 question is where will this money come from? The House Rural Development Council had initially proposed taxing streaming services and digital goods (i.e., Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, ebooks, etc.) as well as television and phone services to help fund rural broadband infrastructure. The 4% sales tax would have replaced the existing taxes on phone lines and cable TV.

The tax proposal went no where fast.

As the legislature plans for its session in 2020, it should consider how it and Governor Kemp can work together to invest in our rural broadband infrastructure. Any sort of tax reform on telecommunications services may once again be dead on arrival as legislators prepare for a 2020 election cycle and may not want to face angry (Republican) primary voters if the legislature passes a bill to tax their binge watching habits to invest in broadband infrastructure.

These shrinking small towns do have representation. It’s time for those representatives to work with their colleagues to determine what can be done to help small towns across our great state. The survival of some of these small towns depend on it.