Greg Hudson in The Daily Mail reports about the broadband conference April 8 at Columbia-Greene Community College, where local politicians got a chance to sound off on the issue:

• Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, a Democrat who represents Dutchess and parts of Columbia counties, said high-speed Internet access should be universally available.

• Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, a Republican who represents parts of Columbia and Albany counties, used the forum to take shots at Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Rural Broadband Program. “It’s incredibly frustrating for me that areas of Brooklyn would qualify for a state program designed to help rural parts of the state, but my own constituents don’t qualify in a truly rural area of the state,” McLaughlin said.

• Rep. Chris Gibson, a Republican who represents the area in Washington D.C. and wants to run for governor in 2018, wants to use the Universal Service Fund, or E-Rate to fund broadband projects for schools and libraries. “We hope to utilize these programs to establish a corridor of broadband infrastructure with schools and libraries, which are important fixtures in communities in our area,” Gibson said.

Read the full story in The Daily Mail.