Governor Reynolds has signed a budget bill that includes 100 million dollars for state grants to companies that extend broadband to areas of the state that don’t have service today — or to significantly improve slow broadband speeds in other areas.

The move got bipartisan support in the legislature. However, Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, says the state COULD have used 100 million in FEDERAL pandemic relief money rather than state tax dollars.

Reynolds plans to ask the 2022 Iowa legislature to provide an additional 300 million MORE state dollars for the program in each of the next two years.