Utah could receive nearly $60 million worth of fiber-optics infrastructure over the next 11 years by allowing telecommunications firms access to the state's interstate rights of way, according to legislative fiscal analysts.
That would be a huge step in the right direction for Gov. Mike Leavitt's vision of a "digital state" in which every Utah home and business has high-speed access to the Internet and other telecommunications services.But a proposal endorsed Tuesday by the Utilities in Highway Rights of Way Task Force would be a step backward for the Utah Department of Transportation.
UDOT executive director Tom Warne cast the only vote against the proposed legislation, in part because it would require his department to pay about $4 million a year to relocate utility lines beneath and surrounding state highways. UDOT eventually would gain about $1.7 million in in-kind services each year from the arrangement, but that's still a net loss of at least $1.6 million annually. And that money would come out of UDOT's construction or maintenance budgets -- or perhaps the Centennial Highway Fund, the 10-year road-building program paid for primarily by an increase in the state's per-gallon gasoline tax. "We will have to delay projects and not do as much as we'd like" to improve the state's highway system, Warne said after the meeting.
The Transportation Interim Committee will discuss the bill and consider endorsing it during its Wednesday afternoon meeting at the Capitol.The measure endorsed Tuesday amends the Utilities in Highway Rights of Way Act passed earlier this year to require UDOT to pay 50 percent of utility relocation costs on state roads, with the other half picked up by the utilities. Rep. Marda Dillree, R-Farmington and co-chairwoman of the Transportation Interim Committee, proposed an amendment to the bill reducing UDOT's share of the cost to 40 percent. But the amendment was voted down.