Blunt Balances Budget on Backs of Inexpensive ISP's Users

According to a Columbia Tribune article, Matt Blunt is planning to balance the Missouri budget of on the backs of Internet users:

A program that sparked a discussion among senators was MOREnet, a technology infrastructure system that provides Internet access, videoconferencing and other services to colleges, K-12 schools and libraries across the state.

In the current year, MOREnet - which operates as a unit within the UM system - received $14.5 million from the state. The House recommended only $11.6 million for next year, and the governor called for only $10.2 million.

Essentially, the Missouri state government acts as an Internet Service Provider. Which duplicates effort made by private companies which could do the job more efficiently.

One state senator wants to cut the funding altogether, but she must be new around Jefferson City since she understands priorities:

Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, said she'd like to see the spending item eliminated, but senators eventually settled on the governor's position.

The state is struggling to fund critical health-care services in the Medicaid program, Ridgeway said, and MOREnet provides a function that should be left to the private sector.

"My proposal is let the free market do what it does, and let's get out of the Internet business once and for all," she said. Ridgeway said she knows of one community where businesses can't get high-speed Internet access. She said the government already provides service to the customers - such as libraries and school districts - that would entice a private-sector provider to enter those markets.

Unfortunately, cuts or elimnation of the funding would require MORENet to behave like a business:

Bill Mitchell, executive director of MOREnet, told senators that if the cuts were implemented, the MOREnet advisory council could reduce or eliminate services such as training and could impose a price hike on customers. Mitchell said all of the state's public colleges and universities use the system, along with 513 K-12 school districts. A private Internet service provider, he said, would be more expensive for those entities.

It would be more expensive for them, but less expensive for the state of Missouri.

News story originally seen on Missourians Fired Up! and The Panic Button ("The chronicles of Governor Matt Blunt: an inexperienced sociopath's attempts to scuttle Missouri")