City calls John Locke brief uninformed 'opinion'

May 11, 2009

Salisbury city officials said Monday a published John Locke Foundation report critical of its efforts to establish a fiber-optic cable utility is mostly opinion, not research. "And not even informed opinion," said Doug Paris, assistant to the city manager.

The Salisbury officials took issue point by point with the conservative think tank's "regional brief," titled "Salisbury's Fiber-Optic System: Another Corporate Welfare Project Paid for by Average Taxpayers." City Manager David Treme said the foundation started out with a premise — probably that government should not be involved in the cable business — then tried to support it...