Salt Lake opts not to enter UTOPIA
A bid to make Utah's capital a participating member of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency, which seeks to bring high-speed fiber-optic Internet connections to every address in member cities, died with a 4-2 vote from the City Council Tuesday.
The vote came as UTOPIA leaders asked Salt Lake City to pledge sales-tax revenues to back UTOPIA's $540 million construction bonds.
For Salt Lake City, that pledge would be $4.1 million yearly for 17 years, which would be spent only if subscription rates onto the network were less than UTOPIA's estimates. If subscription rates met expectations, the city would keep its money and also turn profits that could reach millions annually.
Four council members said the request for sales-tax revenue was too risky, while two said it was too risky not to remain part of UTOPIA.
While not backing the bonds, the council did decide to remain a member of UTOPIA in an effort to regain the $180,000 it spent on a feasibility study last year. But Tuesday's vote means UTOPIA's fiber lines will not be coming to Salt Lake City unless citywide voters choose to back UTOPIA's construction bonds sometime in the future.
The lure of fiber lines would cause residents to locate in Salt Lake City and bring more business, said Carlton Christensen and Nancy Saxton.
"For me, as I looked at it the risk for not doing it becomes greater than the risk for doing it," Christensen said.
Saxton said she goes to Las Vegas often but never gambles. That said, she was willing to take a financial risk on UTOPIA because of the potential economic benefits. The city, after all, has a highly educated population and has a high per capita ownership of computers, she said.
"Salt Lake City needs to carve out a special niche for itself," she said. "I'm convinced that if we use fiber optics for our vision for the future we will have a . . . cutting edge that will allow us to be marketable to the rest of the nation."
But council members Van Turner, Eric Jergensen, Jill Remington Love and Dave Buhler were not convinced.
"I do not believe this is a worthwhile risk for the taxpayers for our city," Jergensen said.
Buhler said UTOPIA is unfair government competition with private business and punishes companies that have invested in the city's broadband infrastructure.
Following the vote, at Jergensen's urging, the city did form a telecom task force, which will look at ways the city can encourage private companies like Quest and Comcast to provide more broadband options for Salt Lake City.
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