Posted: | January 23, 2020 03:36 PM |
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From: | Representative Martin T. Causer and Rep. George Dunbar |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Unserved High-Speed Broadband Funding Program |
As part of the Performance Based Budgeting process each year several tax credits are analyzed to determine their effectiveness. One of the credits evaluated this year was the Mobile Telecommunications Broadband Investment Tax Credit. This credit is limited to $5 million per year and is available to mobile telecommunication providers to invest in broadband equipment in Pennsylvania. The review performed by the Independent Fiscal Office and accepted by the PBB board noted that approximately 90% of the incentivized spending would have taken place without the credit. Pennsylvania has been attempting to find solutions to our lack of rural broadband access. We believe to enhance the economic impact of the credit and to also provide some help with the rural broadband access issue that this tax credit should be converted into a competitive grant that targets the unserved and underserved areas of our commonwealth. We will introduce legislation to repeal the tax credit and create the Unserved High-Speed Broadband Funding Program. The Commonwealth Financing Authority will administer the grants. Please join us in co-sponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as HB2348