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By Jon Styff

The Center Square

It’s not clear how many people are or were aware of the process of local governments hiring contract lobbyists to lobby the state and federal government. But a new Beacon Center poll makes it clear that taxpayers are against the practice.

Only 5% of likely voters support the practice, with 72% of the 1,200 who responded to the poll saying they were against it and 24% saying they are unsure.

“Ultimately, a lot of people don’t know that this happens in the state,” said Beacon Center Vice President of Communications and Outreach Mark Cunningham. “When you look at this number, it was shocking that only 5% believe that’s something that they should be able to use tax dollars to do.”

The poll also asked several questions about broadband funding, which has been a high priority in recent years with federal taxpayer funding.

Reliable high-speed broadband is available at home for 85% of those responding to the poll, with 71% saying that it was very or somewhat affordable and 28% saying it was very or somewhat unaffordable at home.

This biggest issue with broadband include the cost of service for 37% of respondents, speed and reliability for 19%, availability for 10%, customer services for 6% and no issues for 24%.

Only 4% said that broadband access was not important for their household with 93% saying that it is important.

“There have been a lot of cities and counties who have said that there is not enough broadband internet and we need the government to take over and spend millions and millions of dollars to have a government-run internet,” Cunningham said. “We just wanted to see if this was as big of a problem as you’re seeing local governments say it is.”