The Brown County Commissioners approved an ordinance March 21 that would declare the entire county an infrastructure development zone, using a state law created in 2013.
They hope it will entice broadband internet companies to expand service to Brown County.
Senate Enrolled Act 560 allows companies to receive property tax exemptions for increasing the availability of broadband. That includes taxes the company would pay on the facilities or technologies it uses to deploy or transmit service, according to an analysis done in 2013 by the Legislative Services Agency.
Brown County’s version of that law would allow companies to receive exemptions on their business personal property taxes in exchange for building high-speed internet infrastructure here.
Another incentive passed the Indiana House of Representatives at literally the 11th hour on the last day of the legislative session March 14. House Bill 1065 authorizes the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to award grants to providers of broadband service in unserved areas of Indiana.
The internet speed provided by these companies must be at least 10 megabits per second download and one megabit per second upload, according to the bill.
Nashville Town Manager/Economic Development Director Scott Rudd testified multiple times in favor of HB 1065 and worked to get smaller companies, such as Brown County-based Mainstream Fiber, qualified to receive incentives. He said bigger companies such as AT&T were lobbying against the bill, while the Farm Bureau, realty group MIBOR and rural electric membership co-ops lobbied for it.
“It was a dog fight for three months. The bill died five times. … It took an army, I’ll tell you that,” he told the Nashville Town Council on March 15.
The bill puts rural Indiana in a position to be able to benefit from some of the $50 billion promised to infrastructure nationwide, he said.
Rudd also chairs the innovation and technology committee for Accelerate Indiana Municipalities. He said state representatives are now studying why $12 million from a “universal service fund” is being invested in landline phones, when it might be able to be put toward a different type of technology.
“If funding were allocated, again, we’re in position,” Rudd said.
What we have
On Feb. 21, the county commissioners took public comments on the need for internet service options in the county. At least 30 people showed up to speak.
Comments centered on the inability to work or start a new business from home; the fact that some students are unable to complete homework on school-issued devices without internet access; families aren’t moving into the county because of a lack of internet access in homes; and certain internet options being unavailable in bad weather.
A few companies, including Mainstream Fiber Networks, Smithville Communications and NewWave Communications, have made investments in parts of Brown County, but many areas remain unserved or underserved, with residents using cellphone hotspots or other expensive options to connect.
Brown County Auditor Beth Mulry, who lives in Van Buren Township, said she had a young girl approach her house looking for an internet connection to finish a homework assignment after the internet at her house went down.
Mulry said the student had been going from house to house in her neighborhood looking for a friendly neighbor with a reliable connection.
“Fortunately, I had it. So we met each other, said ‘Hi,’ and she sat down at my kitchen table and did her homework,” she said. “It wasn’t the first driveway she went up.
“It was nice that she was at my house and she was in a safe environment, but it was also kind of frightening,” Mulry said. “If she couldn’t find it (internet), her only other opportunity was to find a way to Nashville. She was just that determined to get her homework done.”
Commissioner Diana Biddle said it’s not uncommon to go into McDonald’s at 9 p.m. on any weeknight and see kids there using the free internet to finish assignments on their school-issued devices.
Attracting investment
A sunset clause of three years was added to the county infrastructure development zone ordinance after a community member suggested it during the public hearing. “We want to kind of put some feet to the fire so that people can’t drag things out for eight or 10 or 15 years,” Biddle said, about encouraging companies to take advantage of the incentive quickly.
The business personal property tax exemption would be available on projects within three years from the date the local law passes, she said.
“There will be people that will see that line and over and over again will say, ‘Oh, this only lasts three years.’ That’s not what that says,” county council President Keith Baker added. “It says that if you want this exemption, and your company will be doing broadband business in Brown County, you have to start that within the next three years or actually complete it in the next three years or you don’t get in on this.”
“There is absolutely no reason why commissioners of the future couldn’t come back and renegotiate it,” Biddle added, “but we think a three-year initial offering might be enough to get us on the front burner for some of these projects.”
One of those projects may come from Jackson County REMC and South-Central Indiana REMC. In January, both companies told the county council that they’re looking to offer broadband internet in Brown County.
Together, they could cover 6,200 homes in the county. But neither utility made a firm time commitment for when service might get here, and neither asked for anything specific from the county council.
Baker, Rudd and Biddle are a few of the members of a local broadband internet task force.
Baker said that based on conversations with SCI-REMC, Brown County is looking to be in the first or second phase of the rollout.
“Our aim is to get them not to delay to phase three or four for us,” Baker said.
Resident Susanne Gaudin, who serves on the SCI-REMC board of directors, asked if the county would be “hamstringing REMC and ourselves by making it three years if they are looking at a four-year rollout.”
“We want it now,” Rudd responded. “In four years, who’s to say that program might fail? Other programs fail, things change and conditions change. If we’re not first and we’re not doing everything we can do to be first, we’re putting our population at risk.”
Rudd said it’s important to note that if the exemption isn’t offered, an investment won’t happen, and the county wouldn’t be able to collect these new property taxes from these companies in the first place.
He tried to estimate how much this exemption would be worth based on assessments of existing infrastructure, but those numbers range widely because the values are self-reported by the companies.
Using fiber-optic internet lines valued at $1.05 a foot, and 400 miles of county roads, both gravel and paved, the exemption would add up to about $20,000 a year in taxes a company wouldn’t be paying, he said.
Brown County Redevelopment Commission member Jim Schultz said these companies’ investments could result in the local income tax base increasing overall. “That just brings opportunities to Brown County, not only for people who live here, but also to expand the number of people who live here, which is all part of the equation for success,” Schultz said.
Mulry suggested getting a buildout cost from providers, since that’s the figure the tax exemption would be based on.
Biddle said there’s no reason why the redevelopment commission couldn’t offer more incentives “if that’s what it takes to get this to move off of zero and get us moving in the right direction,” she said.
Rudd said expanding broadband internet access is “the single greatest economic development project you could possibly support at this point, hands down.
“It’s the biggest thing we can possibly imagine in terms of jobs and workforce and population and school enrollment — all of the things we know to be true. I know you know this, but keep that perspective in the public,” he said.
