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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Utah cities pledging their tax revenue to guarantee payment for construction of the UTOPIA fiber-optic network are being asked to extend their pledges.
The cities are being asked to pledge revenue for 20-years rather than the originally proposed 17-years.
Utopia's board of directors approved the new "Interlocal Cooperative Agreement" yesterday. Now city councils will be asked to approve the agreement over the next few weeks.
UTOPIA's chief executive officer says extending the city bond-payment guarantees would lower the network's debt-service payments and minimize each city's exposure.
The Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency was organized two years ago. So far eleven cities have decided to commit municipal tax revenue to guarantee payment of UTOPIA's bonds.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
