When it comes to the $2 billion the state is giving out to help increase poor people’s access to affordable broadband, seven San Joaquin Valley counties say the region has not been a priority.
The group — Fresno, Madera , Merced , Tulare , Kings , San Joaquin and Kern counties — want to know why projects in what is arguably California’s poorest region received only 6.6% of the first $804 million the state gave out. By contrast, the state gave projects in Los Angeles County $96 million last month.
“I’m hard pressed when I look at California, when I look at San Francisco, when I look at Los Angeles,” Nathan Magsisg, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, told The Fresno Bee on Monday. “While they do have pockets of poverty, no region has the level of poverty that we have.”
In October, Magsig and other chairman supervisors in the Valley sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission , which is administering grants to applicants who must use the money on projects that will connect underserved households to quality, affordable Internet. The state established the $2 billion “Last Mile” broadband program in 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed California’s “digital divide” as children’s studies went virtual. The divide refers to the gap between those with access to digital devices and services and those without it. The disparity was especially clear in low income rural communities, such as those in west Fresno County and other parts of the San Joaquin Valley.
The CPUC began awarding grants in June and has provided dollars to projects in 33 counties. In the San Joaquin Valley, only projects in Madera and Tulare counties have been awarded money. Projects in the two counties received a total of $53.6 million, which could benefit an estimated 47,000 people, the CPUC told The Bee in an email.
The commission has recommended grants for projects in Fresno, Merced, San Joaquin and Kern counties, but none has been awarded money yet. In Kings County, no project has been awarded grant money or recommended for an award, according to the CPUC’s online data.
“Rural counties, which face significant challenges in accessing affordable and reliable broadband, are disproportionately affected by this uneven distribution of funds,” the letter from the counties says. “Our understanding (is) that a region as underserved as ours would be prioritized for funding, certainly more so than is currently the CPUC’s plan.”
In an emailed statement, the CPUC told The Bee that it is awarding grants on a rolling basis, and that projects in each of the state’s 58 counties will receive grant money — “with $1 billion allocated to rural counties and $1 billion allocated to urban counties.” The commission will be voting on more awards Dec. 19, when some projects in Fresno, San Joaquin, Merced and Kern counties “may be considered,” according to the agency’s website.
The CPUC did not respond directly to The Bee’s request for a specific comment about the concerns Valley counties spelled out in their October letter. Instead, the state commission directed The Bee to its Frequently Asked Questions flyer for information about how it decided which projects to award grant dollars to: “Applications were holistically evaluated. Staff reviewed required and supporting documentation, compared the merits of the applications, and assessed on a county basis,” the flyer says.
In its email to The Bee, the CPUC said Fresno County projects are slated to get a total $61 million, but the commission also said it is still evaluating applications because so many were submitted from the county. More than 20 broadband expansion projects impacting Fresno County were submitted for grant considerations, asking for a total of more than $150 million.
Magsig said the reason the CPUC received so many applications from Fresno County is because the need is so high, and that he believes many of those projects should have been prioritized and would have scored higher than some that have already been awarded money in other regions.
He pointed to Fresno County as home to 15 cities and more than 30 public school districts, including Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest. The county as the 10th most populous in the state and its projects still having received no awards “shows that the CPUC is not prioritizing the Central Valley, and more specifically, Fresno County,” Magsig said.
Jay Varney, Madera County administrative officer, told The Bee last week that he has noticed a trend of the Valley generally not being prioritized in such programs. Although projects in Madera County have received close to $17 million from the “Last Mile” program, he said he supported the letter because the Valley’s voice is stronger when it speaks as a region.
“This isn’t just three unhappy supervisors in one county,” he said. “This is seven counties.... We don’t want to be considered as an afterthought. We want to be considered in equal stride.”
©2024 the Merced Sun-Star, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
