Koch brothers group leading campaign against Louisville's $5.4M ultra-fast internet expansion

Phillip M. Bailey | Courier Journal

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A group affiliated with the Koch brothers' powerful political network is leading an online campaign against Mayor Greg Fischer's $5.4 million proposal to expand Louisville’s ultra-fast internet access.

"Tell your council member to back #KyWired and stop the Kochs from meddling in Louisville's progress," Fischer said in a tweet hours after the Courier-Journal first reported the Washington, D.C.-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance had launched an online ad campaign.

The city's office of innovation is also urging tech-savvy residents to counter that by supporting the administration's collaboration with Kentucky Wired, a broadband public-private partnership that is installing fiber optic across the state.

Critics argue that building roughly 96 miles of fiber optic cabling is an unnecessary taxpayer giveaway to internet service providers, such as Google Fiber, which recently announced plans to begin building its high-speed network in the city.

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"Fundamentally, we don't believe that taxpayers should be funding broadband or internet systems," said David Williams, president of the taxpayers alliance, which is part of industrialists Charles and David Koch's political donor network.

Call Metro Council NOW: 574-1100. Tell your council member to back #KyWired and stop the Kochs from meddling in Louisville's progress — Mayor Greg Fischer (@louisvillemayor) June 8, 2017

Williams said the group has spent roughly $1,600 put toward social media in the form of a targeted ad campaign focusing on Louisville residents. The group says $5.4 million is a misuse of taxpayer funds when the city has other needs, such as infrastructure and public safety.

The mayor's budget proposes to spend about 80 percent of the city's $23 million in new revenue on public safety and another $25 million on paving, street improvements and sidewalk repairs.

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance promotes itself as a nonpartisan group dedicated to fiscal responsibility and holding public officials accountable for government’s waste, fraud and abuse. According to ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, the group is part of a “constellation of dark money” organizations that have received millions of dollars from the Koch brothers’ network.

Williams said the group receives funding from "a lot of different sources," including groups affiliated with the Koch brothers. He said the group is considering a more traditional lobbying campaign ahead of the budget's approval, which is expected June 22.

Grace Simrall, the city’s innovation chief, said her office is concerned the project's funding could be reduced or eliminated altogether if opponents are successful. The city's technology team is meeting with Democrats and Republicans this week in an effort to reinforce the project's need.

"We've been told by numerous council members that they've already been contacted by concerned private companies" in the local market, Simrall said.

Simrall said she can't confirm who those companies were.

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AT&T and Spectrum, formerly Time Warner Cable, have been two outspoken critics of the mayor's efforts to expand high-speed internet access. The two telecommunication giants are part of an ongoing federal lawsuit against the city's so-called "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance, which allows third parties to install their wireless equipment on poles owned by the two companies.

AT&T Kentucky spokesman Joe Burgan said the company has not taken a position on the Kentucky Wired project but has shared its views when contacted by council members. He said the city shouldn't compete with the private sector and that AT&T believes those projects "should be limited to locations where no private sector broadband service is available or can be expected to provide service in a reasonable timeframe."

A spokesman for Spectrum did not immediately respond to an email request for comment left at 9:40 a.m. Thursday.

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Kentucky Wired planned to build about 90 miles of fiber optic cable in Louisville. The city wants to spend $2.2 million to add 6.6 miles along a stretch of West Broadway.

The city also wants to spend another $3.2 million toward beefing up fiber optic cabling to the lines Kentucky Wired was planning to build, which the city could lease out to internet service providers.

Supporters say an improved fiber network will be a benefit for residents, businesses and economic development by greatly increase access and download speeds.

The Fischer administration has said partnering with the state's initiative saves the city about $10.9 million rather than building a fiber-optic network from scratch. And leasing the additional space could also generate up to $41 million in new revenue, Simrall said.

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But opponents say investing into broadband is best left to the private sector and that the project is being set up as a giveaway to Google Fiber.

In one paid message via Twitter, Williams' taxpayers alliance group said: "Google suspended its fiber efforts in many cities due to cost — now wants Louisville taxpayers to foot the $5.4 million bill."

Simrall told the council's Budget Committee this week that Google Fiber has "not explicitly expressed interest" in leasing the additional fiber space the city wants to build but that other mid-sized companies have.

She told members Google has "been very careful to not share too much about what their network deployment plans are."

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Simrall said in her interview with the Courier-Journal that whatever bidding offer the city makes available for the additional fiber optic cabling won't be exclusive to one company.

"We are going to increase competition, and we will perhaps have language in there that translates into a much lower service plan for actual people, businesses and low-income residents," she said.

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courier-journal.com.