Salt Lake City's mayor appears unwilling to put his taxpayers on the hook to fund Utopia, the most ambitious effort yet of government to get into the broadband business. The Music Man -subterfuge to get government to build broadband networks is happening all over the country, but the could-not-be-better-named Utopia proposal is the most audacious and expensive.

And now for the best parts of the "build it and they will come" plan: there are already two pipes--Qwest's and Comcast's--offering service to Utah residences; the Utopia subscription will be double the retail cost of DSL and cable modem; and, unlike cable, Utopia will have no video product. Sixty bucks a month for 100mbps so espn.com will load at backbone speeds. Sign me up.

Now why wouldn't a mayor want his taxpayers to be on the hook for such an obviously well-conceived business?