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Richard Piatt reportingUTOPIA is a taxpayer-funded, fiber-optic network, and it's facing a critical decision. The city councils of 11 cities are deciding whether to increase funding for the project. Their decision could give it a better chance or kill it.
UTOPIA is already a half-billion dollar risk, funded for 30 years with sales tax revenue from 11 Utah cities. The question now is whether to cut the existing loss or keep investing.
Bill Olsen is the man who runs Murray Printing. His staff puts out the Park City Record every day. The task depends on an Internet connection.
Since January, Olsen says the work has been much faster. That's when his company started using Murray's Mstar UTOPIA fiber-optic connection instead of DSL. "Files that would take up to an hour now take minutes," Olsen said.
Stories like Olsen's helped advance UTOPIA four years ago when it started up. Back then, 11 cities pledged to pay a total of $504 million over 30 years to get the fiber-optic system going. But now, with the first bond payment due July 1, UTOPIA needs still more money, even from cities that don't have it yet.
Critics, like the Utah Taxpayer Association's Royce Van Tassel, say enough is enough. "This is a $504 million boondoggle. There's no way around it. The city councils will be investing taxpayer money in this for 33 years," he said.
So far, seven of the 11 UTOPIA cities have said "yes" to the request for more money. That request amounts to a loan extension to be paid back with city sales tax.
Payson's city council has said flat out "no" to the request, and three cities have not made a decision yet. In some cases, that implies doubt that could stop the project if they join Payson by saying "no."
Murray Mayor Dan Snarr has fought for UTOPIA from the start, partly because he thinks it's better. "We're providing competition that hasn't been there before at a much lower price and a much faster speed," he said. There is a difference of opinion about whether this is "do or die" time for Utopia. Mayor Snarr compares UTOPIA to the freeway system: an enormous controversial investment when it was going in, but now people can't imagine life without it.
E-mail: rpiatt@ksl.com
