Washington State and Massachusetts Release Lists of BTOP and BIP Picks

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com / October 14, 2009

WASHINGTON, October 14, 2009 – The states of Washington and Massachusetts on Wednesday released their lists of the projects that should be prioritized in the broadband stimulus funding decision pending by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the Rural Utilities Service.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick highlighted three groups of projects: the Western Massachusetts activities coordinated by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, the OpenCape Application, and three applications by the City of Boston.

“What distinguished them for the governor, is that their planning and organization pre-dated the Recovery Act,” said Stan McGee, Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning in Massachusetts Department of Housing and Economic Development, in Wednesday interview with BroadbandCensus.com. “I don’t envy the task that [Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence] Strickling has” in selecting among the applications, he said.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire promoted 10 applications in her letter. The sum total of the first five, which she rated as meeting the federal and state broadband priorities, and “most likely to successfully execute their proposals,” was $141 million. The sum total of the second five, which met the priorities but were not considered the most likely to succeed, was $34 million.