By: Diane Benjamin
Friends of government and preferred community investors always get a break. Normal doesn’t care that everybody else pays more so they can give breaks to people/groups/companies they approve of.
Private investment flees when free market competition doesn’t exist. Why invest when government works against you by providing freebies to competitors?
Many people claim capitalism doesn’t work. When government perverts it, they are correct. Giving government MORE control of the economy is what is destroying it. Crony capitalism doesn’t work!
Monday night was the latest example of Normal’s cronyism:
See the last line:
20 year lease for $10 @ year.
Metronet is building on public land, so they didn’t have to buy property. They won’t be paying property taxes because they are leasing.
The Town of Normal chose to interfere in the private market. (nothing new for them)
“Metronet has determined that this property will meet their needs.”
Duh.
As I see it, this agreement is theft by the City Council and Metronet. Nothing is mentioned about the FEES and TAXES that users will have to pay them for this fiber optic network. Just like Comcast, they will be a monopoly and there is no one in town to talk to when you have a problem. Remember when you could go talk to LOCAL merchants and negotiate with them directly?
Diane, I support the Town’s efforts to attract Metronet to build gigabit Internet service. The existing 2 services, Frontier DSL and Comcast cable, are terrible and pricey. Helping Metronet get started is a good way to provide real competition. I currently subscribe to Frontier DSL. I would be using CIRN if available to residences and will switch to Metronet the minute the service become available. Thank you.
If Metronet is that wonderful they wouldn’t need government help. Every taxpayer in Normal is going to pay more because they aren’t paying their fair share.
The Town is not trying to attract Metronet. Metronet initiated the move into the Central Illinois area in order to expand their business. Like all other franchises such as Comcast, Metronet will have to pay the city to install fiber optic cables through the city’s right-of-ways. Those charges will be passed on to the consumer. The point is, the city did not provide a similar deal for Comcast or Frontier. Those companies had to buy their own land, build their own building and pay property taxes. Metronet is getting a free ride.