Bills to support improved broadband access are moving through NM Legislature’s current session. In NM, the governor has the final say on legislation with a “line item veto”, so until that process has ended after the session is over, changes to access won’t be official.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Legislature-acts-to-improve-broadband-internet-access-NMPolitics.net_.pdf”]Padilla said there are some 50 bills or memorials in the Legislature that touch on the need for better broadband. Memorials are sentiments of expression that have no force of law.
Padilla said millions of dollars were awarded to states by the federal government under President Barack Obama as part of the economic stimulus launched after the recession of 2008. New Mexico missed out on much of the funding because it didn’t have a plan in place to show where broadband was needed and how it would get service to underserved communities, Padilla said.
Yet, the need is there. According to an analysis of one bill, more than 90 percent of schools are connected to fiber, “among the highest in the nation, yet school connection speeds are among the slowest in the nation.”