[1st-mile-nm] New Mexico Senate passes bill creating state division to upgrade broadband

[Richard Lowenberg]

New Mexico Senate passes bill creating state division to upgrade 
broadband

By Robert Nott rnott at sfnewmexican.com  Mar 3, 2021

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/new-mexico-senate-passes-bill-creating-state-division-to-upgrade-broadband/article_e73f01c4-7c2c-11eb-a5cd-ffbdee34ddc2.html

Schoolchildren are still sitting in cars to access Wi-Fi hotspots to 
take part in virtual lessons, a leading Democratic senator told his 
colleagues Wednesday.

That’s one reason Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup and chairman of the Senate 
Finance Committee, urged his colleagues to support Senate Bill 93, which 
would create a central state office to develop and upgrade New Mexico’s 
broadband system.

The state doesn’t have a blueprint for broadband, said Sen. Michael 
Padilla, D-Albuquerque and co-sponsor of the legislation. He said 
creating a plan is the key focus of the bill.

“Broadband will never happen until we put that plan in place,” Muñoz 
told the Senate, which voted 33-6 to support the bill following about an 
hour of debate Wednesday, sending the measure to the House.

Citing a 2020 report that said despite investments of hundreds of 
millions of dollars, access to broadband services has remained spotty 
for many New Mexicans, Padilla said only by creating an agency to focus 
on the problem will the state solve it.

Among other functions, the new entity would work to draw matching 
federal funds for every dollar New Mexico invests in its broadband 
system — a goal that could bring in somewhere between $9 and $13 for 
every dollar spent by the state, Padilla said.

Though improvements and new investments — a total of $325 million 
between 2015 and 2018 — have been made in offering and expanding 
broadband, the fact so many state agencies play a role in the effort 
leads to gaps in data and service, that 2020 report said.

That report suggested New Mexico create an anchor agency to address the 
issue.

New Mexico often ranks near or at the bottom in national studies when it 
comes to broadband capability. A recent broadbandnow.com analysis ranked 
it 42nd in the country — and behind neighboring states Arizona, 
Colorado, Texas and Utah — when it comes to connectivity.

That leaves somewhere between 13 percent and 20 percent of New Mexico’s 
roughly 200,000 homes and businesses without broadband access, according 
to the 2020 report.

A proposed Office of Broadband Access and Expansion would be charged 
with creating maps and collecting data about broadband access for homes 
and businesses in the state, and setting standards of quality for 
broadband speeds.

It would also work with federal, state, regional, local and tribal 
agencies to obtain licenses for rights of way for broadband 
infrastructure.

Those efforts are needed, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, 
D-Albuquerque.

“It is absolutely crucial for our future that the state address that 
problem … and expand to every corner of the state that is rural that 
does not have broadband,” she said.

Not all lawmakers were sold on the idea. Though Sen. Jacob Candelaria, 
D-Albuquerque, voted for the bill, he told Padilla the legislation had 
no provisions for holding the new agency accountable should plans not 
work out as intended.

He added the bill does not offer specifics on how much more broadband 
the state could access with the help of the new division.

“We need to ask critical questions, including appropriation … what 
results do we get?” he said. “The bill doesn’t really provide 
accountability, and so it falls upon us [as legislators].”

Some Republicans raised concerns the creation of a new state agency will 
simply add to the growth of government entities. “Be careful,” said Sen. 
Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, who voted against the bill. He said he could 
see the state needing to invest more money and more employees into the 
new office in a year.

Though the plan does not have an appropriation, Padilla said the new 
division will be wrapped into the existing New Mexico Department of 
Information Technology and use its employees, who will be repurposed to 
support the broadband efforts.



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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