Broadband policy in the US is at a crossroads. Unserved and underserved Americans are more likely to be underprivileged, and for-profit broadband providers are unable or unwilling to build and/or upgrade their infrastructure in rural and high-poverty areas – where the return of investment may not justify the high capital costs. Government leadership is critical to achieve universal access and guarantee high-capacity, affordable, and resilient infrastructure.The literature has primarily focused on the impact of federal programs. This dissertation focuses on state broadband policy and community broadband planning before the pandemic – when digital equity was not yet a federal government priority. First, a quantitative study examines data collected by The Pew Charitable Trusts of 724 grant-awarded broadband projects across 17 states, from 2014-2020. We develop regression models to examine the impact of state broadband policies on the allocation of state grants, using county-level demographic, socioeconomic and market characteristics, as well as state-level policy factors. We find that state broadband programs are reaching low-density and low-adoption areas, but are not yet addressing other concerns of digital equity – such as deployment in high-poverty areas. At the state-level, high match requirements were linked to fewer grants in metro counties, while municipal broadband restrictions were linked to more grants in rural counties. Second, a qualitative study features six case studies of grant-funded rural broadband projects in Colorado and Maine. We consider how a multi-level governance framework can ensure that public values are met in infrastructure planning – particularly in populations less likely to be connected, and communities with limited resources and capacity. Vertical coordination across all three levels of government enables the efficient allocation of resources and policy design at the state level. Horizontal cooperation between rural communities and their neighbors; community advocates; broadband providers, and rural utilities, facilitate demand-pooling, resource-sharing, and access to state funding. This dissertation has implications for the future distribution of broadband funding, and highlights the need for infrastructure policy that recognizes socioeconomic inequality in broadband access.