Disclosure: This is an unregistered blog. Reader discretion is advised.
One of the sheer joys of circus life is that it’s all show business all the time.
That is especially true when it’s the Florida Legislature huddled under that Big Top.
Certainly lawmakers looked like a carload of clowns in their blind determination to wage the Great DeSanitizer’s vindictive war against Disney.
Never mind the real life consequences of screwing around with Florida’s largest employer and, arguably, its most successful business enterprise. The anti-Ron runs this three ring circus. And his clowns commence “hollering and raising hell” when he cracks his whip.
At one point, before they realized just how stupid they would look, these clowns were ready to “punish” Disney by offloading its debt onto local taxpayers.
Chuckles, our local suburban clown, is having a fine time playing Mini-Me Ron and waging his own vindictive war against the city he pretends to represent but loves to hate.
His attempted hostile takeover of GNV’s city resident-owned public utility is all show business and no substance.
Chuckles acts like he’s trying to save an abused dog from a neglectful owner. But GRU is a complex, multi-billion dollar operation. And shades of Disney! His slap dash bill to turn over GRU control to a board of Great DeSanitizer puppets threatens to throw the utility’s financial viability into chaos.
As Daniel Née, the City’s attorney, noted in a recent email “while this entire legislative effort is aimed at addressing the utility debt burdens on the City and its ratepayers, this current draft presents a tremendous amount of uncertainty, unintended consequences, and potentially traumatic pitfalls…”
Née’s email included a memo from Holland and Knight, GRU’s bond council, highlighting several concerns about the last draft of the bill available for review.
For instance, H&K notes, “It is unclear whether the Authority is the ‘issuer’ of the bonds on behalf of itself or on behalf the City of Gainesville.” For tax purposes it matters to GRU bond holders “whether the bond in question is a State or local bond…”
Presumably Chuckles intends for them to continue to be municipal bonds. But if so, that leads to yet another issue according to H&K.
“This raises the question of whether a State appointed board, without the approval of the City, has authority to incur debt on behalf of the City.”
Does that mean a board of Great DeSantizer puppets will be able to shove future GRU indebtedness down GNV’s throat whether the City likes it or not? Who knows?
“The sudden changes to the operation of GRU to a state appointed board, including rate setting authority could create insecurity by bondholders, swap counterparties, liquidity and credit providers and the rating agencies,” H&K cautions. “Time should be taken to ensure that stakeholders are adequate briefed of the changes to ensure that GRU maintains access to the financial markets and does not jeopardize its rating.”
Time?
Listen, this is the same carload of clowns that tried to DeSanitize Disney in bum’s rush speed. What makes anybody think Chuckles and his clowns are going to take any more time to worry about GRU’s financial future?
Anyway, if the end game of Chuckles’ Circus Act is to set up GRU for eventual sale to a certain Florida utility monopoly that employs armies of lobbyists to seduce the Legislature, then how better to achieve that goal then by reducing GRU’s “full faith and credit” rating to junk bond status?
Then, some lucky monopoly will be able to snap it up at bargain basement prices.
That’s why utility giants throw so much money at these clowns. Listen, running a circus isn’t cheap.
FreeGNV 