A three-paragraph bill headed to the Senate floor could allow a handful of taxpayer-owned utilities to extend broadband service to their customers much like the electric power associations do.
Senate Bill 2474 would allow any municipal utility that serves one third of its customers outside municipal boundaries to have the same powers as a non-profit electric power association (EPA) , also known as a cooperative. Under the bill authored by state Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, municipal utilities could also enter interlocal agreements with an adjacent public utility.
Bryan said at the committee meeting that the bill was specifically aimed at the cities of Okolona, New Albany and Holly Springs and would allow those municipal utilities in those cities to bring broadband to surrounding rural areas that are part of their service area but outside that of an EPA.
“The goal of this bill is to allow these people to get internet service,” Bryan said. “And to allow, if they want to, public schools to participate in that because one problem we’ve all encountered is the public schools need to talk to their students and their parents and they need to be able to talk back to the schools via the internet and they can’t do it because they ain’t got internet.”
Some of the powers accorded by the Legislature to electric power cooperatives include the ability to provide broadband service to electric customers, the ability to use right of way acquisition to improve its ability to deliver electrical service and to operate across state lines.
There are 23 government-owned electric utilities in Mississippi, with Starkville, Oxford and Tupelo being the largest in terms of both customers and service area.
The double-referred bill was approved by the Senate Energy Committee Wednesday in a six-minute meeting and was approved by the Senate Municipalities Committee on Thursday to set up a floor vote in the Senate. The deadline for bills to reach the floor for a vote is February 10.
The Legislature passed a bill in 2019 that allowed EPAs to provide broadband service to their customers in addition to electric service. Only four EPAs have declined to provide internet service to customers.
Speaking of broadband, there are also similar bills in both the House and Senate that would both create a commission to delegate federal funds to providers for broadband expansion.
These funds came from the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11.
