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Proper Economic Incentives
A story in the Deseret News reports on the activities of Utah’s Economic Development Board. Most of these were tax incentives or rebates. The headliner was $250,000 to help Comcast install a fiber optic line into Cache County.
I’m familiar with the last since when I was CIO, the lack of redundant fiber capability into Cache County was a topic that came up frequently. There are economic development issues, to be sure, but there are also public safety and other concerns.
Maybe it’s just my bias, but helping Comcast install redundant fiber seems to be fundamentally different from the other actions approved by the board, which grant various tax rebates or incentives to companies for jobs or PR. The former solves an infrastructure problem, one of the most important roles government plays, while the latter seem to be nothing appear to be nothing more than giving tax money to private companies.
Having said that, I worry about government solving infrastructure problems like this one on the cheap as it were. I know nothing of Comcast’s plans, so I don’t know how much it really solves the redundancy problems that’s plagues the State for years and how much it just helps Comcast.
Some of the issues include: What’s the routing of the new fiber? Will capacity on the fiber be available to all, or just Comcast? If the latter, will Comcast be required to sell to competitors? Will public safety be able to count on the redundant capacity?
Some public-private partnerships are a boon to taxpayers, but I’ve seen too many that end up benefiting the private company to a much greater degree than they do the public. The private interest is focused and knows what it wants. The public interest is fractured and difficult to manage.
Posted by windley on May 23, 2005 10:02 AM
