Good news on broadband expansion efforts

Much credit goes to U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., as well as Gov. Jim Justice, who all have made broadband expansion a focal point of their efforts.

Manchin and Capito helped to negotiate the legislation, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, while Justice has led the effort on the state level to maximize the funding and utilize it wisely.

“This means West Virginia is another step closer to using our $1.2 billion towards efforts to better connect homes, business and classrooms across the state,” Capito said in a statement Thursday. “It’s no surprise to me that West Virginia came out ahead of so many other states that have more personnel, because it’s hard to compete with the dedication of Governor Justice’s team.”

“I’m just tickled to death. We’ve been pushing the living daylights out for this,” Manchin said Thursday. “We’ve really got to be connected. … If we don’t get broadband now, we’re never going to get it.”

While we join in the excitement of the pending effort, we again stress the importance that West Virginia has the safeguards in place to make sure the money is spent wisely.

Unfortunately, the Mountain State has been down this path before, falling prey to internet companies that didn’t deliver as promised while being paid handsomely thanks to past federal funding.

While we understand that running broadband into some of the state’s most rural terrain will be costly, we would think that by now, state officials have a good idea what those costs should be.

Combined with the help of federal guidelines, the state should make sure it has the procedures and personnel in place to oversee the approved plan to optimize the broadband funding at hand.

With $1.2 billion to work with, as well as a much better understanding of the shortfalls of past efforts, state leaders must now make sure the plan delivers what’s needed — and what’s been promised — to West Virginia residents.

As Gov. Justice is wont to say, let’s not confuse effort with results. We like where our leaders have gotten us to. Now, it’s time to fix the state’s broadband shortcomings.