Utopia
UTOPIA has been an ongoing source of difficulty for this city and it could be safely said that all those who voted “yes” on it those many years ago would not repeat that vote. But the vote for Utopia was in 2004, and it is now 2017. What do we do now?
Where do we go form here?
I have been asked, “Would you have voted for it if given the opportunity?” I feel strongly I would have voted no had I been there at that time. That being said, the past is the past. The relevant question for current council members or candidates is NOT “Are you for or against UTOPIA?” As a city, we are now committed to paying the sales tax bond until our obligation is completed. The relevant question is “Where do we go from here?”
I will continually re-evaluate the situation and be open to all reasonable approaches or solutions. At this time, my analysis tells me that our best choice is to continue to work with other member cities toward the end goal of reducing our 30-year bond debt.
In 2004, I was not involved in city politics, but a neighbor invited me to meetings on UTOPIA to become a supporter. I declined that invitation because I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of the city getting involved in such an enterprise. I feel that the idea of UTOPIA oversteps the role of municipal government and I also felt that the predicted subscriber numbers were much too optimistic. Beyond those misgivings, that was too large of a debt burden to take on.
But again, the question is now: Where do we go from here? The duty facing us today is to make our decisions based on firm analysis of the present situation, not out of anger for past mistakes. We currently have a much more solid plan in place, with the fiber being laid only where revenue will be produced. We are starting to see the results of that plan being implemented, with subscribers and therefore revenue increasing every month. This plan predicts reasonably that if the member cities help bridge operating costs for two more years (with the amounts needed reducing every month over that time), then UTOPIA will start operating in the black and earning money. This money would first go to paying back the loaned operating expenses, and then could eventually go towards paying down our debt burden.
Some have talked of not giving UTOPIA another dime. That option does not make sense to me. If we do not work with the other member cities to see UTOPIA continue to implement the improved plan and bring in income, this could lead to UTOPIA “going dark”. If we let UTOPIA “go dark” we still owe the sales tax bond commitment for thirty years with no chance of getting any of that paid back. Also, any benefits that our citizens are now seeing would then disappear. (If you would like more information on the benefits of UTOPIA for our citizens and/or the positive improvements in how UTOPIA is being run, please contact me.)
I have heard some express concern that UTOPIA will bankrupt our city. To put things in perspective, for the fiscal year 2013/2014 our debt obligation to UTOPIA is less than 3% of our total budget. Even if all our other budget numbers stayed the same for the next 27 years, in 2040, the percentage would be less than 5%. UTOPIA is an important issue, and one we need to learn from. But it certainly isn’t going to make or break our fiscally-conservative, financially-well-run city.
The best move to make now is to sign up! It’s a great service at an extremely competitive price to the individual homeowner. If you haven’t already signed up, I encourage you to do so. If you have, I encourage you to encourage your neighbors to do so.