Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has announced that the state will commit another $100 million to the the $300 million investment that was announced in March as part of a bipartisan budget agreement to allocate federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Together, these funds - $400 billion - are part of what Governor Hogan calls the "Connect America" initiative designed to close remaining digital divides.
The funds will be used both to deploy broadband in parts of the state that lack access to broadband networks and to subsidize service for low-income individuals.
The objective of closing remaining digital divides by closing both deployment and affordability gaps is a worthy one. But $400 million is a lot of new funding - on top of that which already has been expended. It will be especially important, if the funds are not to be used in an inefficient and wasteful fashion to carefully target the expenditures to meet the initiative's objectives - and then to carefully monitor the expenditures.
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