A state House bill could limit municipal broadband initiatives in Virginia and derail expansion in the Roanoke Valley less than a year after the local authority landed its first customer.
Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell, said Thursday that the aim of the legislation she introduced is to limit tax money spent on government-subsidized internet service in areas already covered by private providers. The intent, she said, isn’t to kill local efforts to build a government-owned network across the region.
That, however, would be the effect for the Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority, according to Roanoke City Manager Chris Morrill.
“It’s too hard to speculate at this point,” he said. “But the way it’s written, I can’t imagine how [the authority] could [survive]. And we would have lost this important investment that we’ve made.”
