The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF) has approved more than $228 million for Internet projects in the New York Municipal Infrastructure Program (MIP).
The MIP is part of the state’s ConnectALL initiative, which is a competitive grant program that funds local governments and ISPs who will provide last-mile infrastructure to tens of thousands of locations.
The MIP will prioritize applications based on categories including experience, cost, project readiness, broadband service quality and digital equity impact, according to the Department of the Treasury. The award represents 66% of the state’s CPF allocation.
This was the second CPF award to the Empire State. Last March, $100 million was awarded to the Affordable Housing Connectivity Program, which provides high speed Internet in low-income housing units. The award represented 29% of the state’s allocation.
Combined, the projects represent about 95% of New York’s CPF allocations.
The CPF was created by the American Rescue Plan. It has a budget of $10 billion that it is in the process of awarding to states, territories, freely associates states and Tribal governments. Many governments are supplementing their awards with a portion of their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF).
To date, the CPF has awarded more than $9 billion for broadband, digital technology and multi-purpose community centers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than two million locations will be reached and hundreds of thousands of individuals will benefit by expanded services in multi-purpose community facilities, Treasury said in announcing the New York awards.
This isn’t the first award that the CPF made this year. On January 18, Treasury approved $82.2 million for projects in North Carolina. The projects will connect approximately 18,000 homes and business to broadband.
