Utah lawmakers will consider a bill that would make it impossible for the financially troubled UTOPIA fiber-optic network to use money from the future sale of bonds to fund its day-to-day operations.
SB 172 would prohibit cities and counties from selling bonds after May 14 to build projects and then use any of that money to operate them more than one year after the debt was issued.
It also would prevent money from the bonds to be used to pay off interest more than five years after the bonds are issued. UTOPIA, a consortium of 11 cities from Brigham City to Payson that are building the high-speed Internet network, has been doing just that.
The bill's provisions would not affect the bond money UTOPIA is using at present.
"Basically, I don't want government financing its operations through borrowing money," said sponsor Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem. "That's what they do in California. We don't want to do that in Utah."
SALT LAKE CITY — A bill inspired by the financial travails of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) putting limits on using proceeds from a bond for operating expenses for more than a year has passed the Senate.
SB 172, sponsored by Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, passed the Senate on Wednesday and now advances to the House.
The Orem lawmaker likened using a bond for operational expenses to paying for a mortgage by using a credit card.
Valentine said the bill will not go back and undo UTOPIA, because the rules would go into effect March 14 this year.
Layton, Tremonton, Brigham City, Perry and Centerville are all members of the fiber network, which has struggled financially since its inception almost a decade ago.
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