On Tuesday, Montezuma County and the town of Dolores both voted to opt out of restrictive Senate Bill 152, a law that prohibits governments from getting into the telecommunication business.
In Montezuma County, 70 percent of voters chose to opt out of SB152, voting 8,469 to 3,628 in favor of Referendum 1A.
In Dolores, 85.7 percent of voters chose to opt out of SB152, voting 371-62 in favor of Referendum 2A.
The vote paves the way for the county to begin developing its plan to build out telecommunication infrastructure to provide high speed internet for the county and towns.
“This opens the door for the county to move forward on a broadband initiative,” said Jim McClain, information technology manager for Montezuma County. “This unties our hands and give us an opportunity to improve internet service for the community.”
In 2005, Colorado law SB152 passed, which restricts local governments from building or investing in new telecommunication infrastructure.
The industry friendly legislation was good for internet companies because it eliminated government competition.
But it also had a downside because it prevented rural communities with limited internet service from asking local government for funding help to improve the technology.
The result was a mass exodus from the law as 44 cities and counties voted to opt out of the law. Mancos opted out last year, and Cortez is exempt from the law.
Now Montezuma County and the Town of Dolores are out from under SB152 as well.
The question to opt out of SB152 became bogged down when it became intertwined with a proposed county sales tax question to fund $39 million high-speed internet project.
In July, the county commission first agreed to a bundled ballot question that combined opting out of SB152 and approving a one percent sales tax to pay for the ambitious telecommunication upgrade.
But critics said the fast-track approach that asked simultaneous approval of the sales tax and opting out of SB152 was “putting the cart before the horse.”
They backed off the plan in August and decided to just ask voters to opt out of SB152.
The county still supports a broadband project but that high price tag is not an option any longer, officials reported Monday.
“The problem we ran into was that a lot of the community was not if favor of opting out because thought at tax was attached with the question,” said Chelsea Jones, of the Montezuma Community Economic Development Association.
