Senate subcommittee presses California Department of Technology over late Middle Mile business plan; hears updates on digital ID and staffing cuts

The California State Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration and General Government pressed the California Department of Technology (CDT) on May 20, 2025 for a business plan required by statute for the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative that was due Jan. 31, 2025 but had not been submitted.

The business plan is intended to provide the legislature with estimated revenues and expenditures for the Middle Mile network and to inform whether an ongoing general fund subsidy will be necessary once the network is operational. Brian Metzger of the Legislative Analyst's Office told the committee the business plan is in review and will be important to judge whether the network can operate without state subsidy.

Why it matters: The Middle Mile Initiative is a major state investment to build an open-access fiber backbone intended to lower costs and expand capacity for last-mile providers across urban and rural California. Lawmakers said they cannot make informed budget decisions about a large general fund item without seeing the statutorily required business plan.

CDT officials described progress on construction and financing. Mark Bundrow, deputy director for the Middle Mile initiative, said the program represents what CDT calls the largest open-access middle mile network in the country, with more than 8,100 miles planned and more than 3,000 miles currently in active construction under contracts with multiple partners including tribal entities, local governments and private companies. He said the initiative included an allocation of $250 million in general fund (SB measure funding noted in testimony), and at the time of the hearing about $193 million of that tranche remained unencumbered but was expected to be encumbered…