Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan High Speed Internet office announced last month that the state will spend more than $3,000 in taxpayer funds for each high-speed internet connection it subsidizes statewide.

The program has connected 10,000 homes and businesses through funding forecasted to connect 71,500 previously underserved locations, the press release said.

A portion of the funds spent on high-speed connections — $238 million — comes from a Michigan grant program called Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks, or ROBIN, which aims to bring internet connectivity to the state.

“Access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet is a necessity to pay the bills, do homework, access telehealth services and so much more,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Today’s announcement of the ROBIN program’s 10,000th high-speed internet connection is a sign of our commitment to building out this critical infrastructure in every region of Michigan.”

The state is “working to create a more digitally equitable Michigan where everyone can leverage technology to improve their quality of life,” said a press release from the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

Program funding comes from a U.S. government program known as the Coronavirus Capital Fund Investment project, according to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. It will also include $218 million in matching funds from local governments and private sources, totaling $456 million. Funds will go to various companies, including Spectrum, to spend on 71,500 new connections, the press release said.

Each connection will come at a cost of $6,377, with $3,329 supplied by the state and the rest through matching funds.

This program will connect homes to the internet via fiber-optic technology, according to an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential from Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

Frederick believes fiber optic broadband is the best choice for connecting locations, despite its initial higher cost.

“Unlike satellite systems like Starlink, fiber provides consistent high-speed internet uncompromised by bad weather, signal latency, or limited bandwidth availability,” Frederick said, noting that fiber infrastructure lasts longer and is cheaper to maintain than satellite systems.

Government-overseen programs provide internet at a much higher cost than private companies, said Ted Bolema, a senior fellow at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Growth at Wichita State University.

“This is because these programs have been hijacked by other agendas, including choosing winners and losers among competing internet technologies, climate change mandates, price regulations, preferences for hiring union workers, and a lot of red tape,” Bolema told CapCon in an email.

A large share of the spending ends up in populated areas already well-served by private providers, Bolema said. This diverts funding away from homes in underserved areas, which tend to be rural.

The state can’t predict what technologies will be used in the future, Bolema said.

“These are the same discredited arguments used more than 20 years ago to justify Gov. Engler’s Michigan Broadband Development Authority, and every internet spending program by the Michigan government since then,” Bolema said in response to Frederick’s comments. “Governments have a dismal record of delivering on the promises of economic prosperity they claim will follow when the government chooses the type of Internet access people should have, so they keep coming back with more spending programs to try to deliver on what the last spending program failed to accomplish.”

Bolema added the private sector continues to move forward providing the kinds of internet people want, and at far less cost than when the government gets involved. 

The incoming Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, favors giving vouchers to people without sufficient access and letting them choose the best way to connect. Some may choose satellite-based provider Starlink, which offers high-speed internet with a $199 installation fee if using a service and not self-installing.

The cost to connect to Starlink is about $599 in upfront fees. In reviewing the Starlink website, CapCon found other prices listed, including $349 and $249, suggesting the company offers different pricing to customers depending on how they approach the website.

If the state spent $599 on each 71,500 forecasted connections, the cost would total $43 million.

When the United Auto Workers submitted its priority list to the Michigan Legislature for the lame-duck session, it included voting for a bill to give illegal immigrants living in Michigan driver’s licenses.

The UAW urged the outgoing Democratic trifecta to “Fight back against divide-and-conquer politics” by voting for the “Drive Safe” bill package, according to a Dec. 4 letter obtained by Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The letter asked lawmakers to vote for House Bills 4410, 4411, and 4412.

“With over 300,000 active and retired members, the UAW is Michigan’s largest union. We fight for the working class, and we strongly encourage our legislators to do the same by taking urgent action to pass legislation that helps working families and our communities,” said the letter signed by UAW President Shawn Fain.

The union’s support of political questions that don’t benefit its members is one reason members either leave the union or choose to pay agency fees that fund representational activity but not political spending, according to Terry Bowman, who has worked for Ford at the Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, for 28 years. Bowman was a UAW member for 13 years but left after his union dues promoted “political and social agendas I strongly disagreed with and knew were harmful to America's auto industry,” he told CapCon in an email.

Bowman advocated for Michigan to become a right-to-work state, which it did in 2013, so his dues wouldn’t fund the union’s political action. Union dues can fund political speech, such as advocating for driver’s licenses for all, but individual dues-payers have the choice not to pay the portion of dues that go toward political activities.

After the 2024 repeal of right-to-work, UAW workers have no way to show disapproval of a union that spends time and money lobbying for issues the bulk of its membership is likely opposed to, Bowman said.

“Unfortunately, UAW officials are continuing their long, sad history of promoting political and social issues that either have nothing to do with the auto industry or in fact can harm the environment that creates automotive jobs in the private sector,” Bowman told CapCon.

The UAW reported spending $4.1 million on political activities and lobbying in 2023, according to the most recent LM-2 report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

“This makes it very clear that unlike what the UAW claims, the union does not represent the will of the workers.” Bowman wrote. “Official union political and social positions do not flow up from the actual will of the workers, but instead are forced on us by the personal political and social ideology of just a few UAW executives in positions of power. “

“This is why all workers (as stated above) in the private sector deserve the same rights, freedoms, and protections that public sector workers enjoy. We need protection from the very same unions that incorrectly claim to have our best interest at heart.”

The UAW didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The UAW isn’t alone. The AFT-Michigan teachers union urged action to stop the deportation of illegal immigrants, according to a report from Michigan News Source.