knoxnews.com-Government-owned broadband networks have been a tool misguidedly pursued by local governments to allegedly close the digital divide and connect communities to the internet. While the effort is noble, history has shown that they do much more harm than good to taxpayers.

The plain fact is local governments aren’t very good at building and maintaining internet infrastructure, especially over the private sector, which invests around $70 billion annually to maintain and upgrade its own networks. This has made government-owned broadband networks largely unsustainable and having a high rate of failure, often leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. To cover for their losses, governments have had to raise taxes, issue bonds, see their credit ratings tumble and even siphon money away from the services we need, like good schools and funding for our police.

Now, one large East Tennessee public utility is chasing an expensive broadband network despite history showing it is a bad idea for its ratepayers.

We don’t have to look far to see what happens when a city tries to build its own broadband network. Newport, Tennessee, drastically overestimated the number of customers that would take broadband from the city, and the local utility has been plagued by investigations into financial irresponsibility after investing in a government-owned broadband network in 2018. Bristol's OptiNet internet network ended up being sold at a loss of over $80 million for local taxpayers. And that’s just the start. The city of Provo, Utah, was forced to sell its network in 2013 for $1 to Google, leaving the city’s taxpayers holding the bag on the $39 million bond originally issued to build it. Even Chattanooga's famous "Gig City" network, after a $110 million subsidy from the federal government, will take over 680 years for Chattanooga taxpayers to pay off. Even more, communities in Eastern Tennessee today have far more options when it comes to broadband providers than when Chattanooga and even Newport launched their networks decades ago. That includes Lenoir City, which has 18 providers that offer high-speed internet.

So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Lenoir City Utility Board wants to rush through its government-owned broadband network project without providing full transparency on what it will cost taxpayers. There are inconsistencies over the actual amount of money needed to fund the project. Despite a 2018 study stating the broadband network would cost $130 million, the 2021 feasibility study somehow miraculously claims the project would now cost only $30 million. Even though the project remains the same, the reasoning for this huge price discrepancy has yet to be addressed. Even odder, a recent article in the Johnson City Press said LCUB would need to borrow $132 million from the electric side of the business to fund the project. Answers are needed, for taxpayers and for the state comptroller, from LCUB before it goes forward.

But perhaps most confusing of all, nearly 99% of Lenoir City is already served by three or more internet providers, so there is truly no reason for this project to move forward without transparency and an explanation of why citizens should put their tax dollars at risk to build a redundant network. LCUB is rushing to spend over $100 million of their hard-earned dollars on a government takeover of the internet without giving the community a say on the project or specifics of the real cost. We don’t need more big government, especially for something as complicated and technical as running a broadband network.

Ron Shultis is the director of policy at Beacon Center of Tennessee, the state's free-market think tank.