In 2006, St. Cloud, Florida, a town of about 30,000 people, became the first city in the U.S. to experiment with free city wide wi-fi. But the recession hit, and like every other U.S. city, they faced declining tax revenues. And the city wide wi-fi network looked like an easy target for the city council to eliminate. So they cut the public portion but kept the portion used by the city government.
Perhaps this is one of those efforts by governments to cut programs that people really want so that the taxpayers feel enough pain to welcome a tax hike. In any event, the public didn't like it. Excerpt:
Scores of angry residents packed commission chambers Thursday, demanding that the city not pull the plug. " St. Cloud is not a hick town anymore," said resident Keith Harris. "We're country folks, but we're not backwards. One of the reasons for that is our Internet."
As a result the city council voted to extend it for another 120 days. Perhaps the citizens should conduct their own examination of the budget and make some trimming recommendations to the city council.
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