The Advertiser reports on the administration’s trip to New York next month. They’ve set up the appointments and so now have a date to make the pilgrimage. This, as the story indicates, is an important trip:
A good credit rating means the city is a better risk to investors, and the bonds would have a lower interest rate. Investors will loan the money in exchange for the bonds. The money will be repaid with revenues generated from fiber services.
Note that this is a credit rating for the bonds themselves…not for LUS or LCG. Their history will count, of course, and LUS in particular has a stellar history. They recently got excellent ratings on a larger bond sale whose purpose was to build new electrical capacity. Some of that demonstrated confidence in LUS’ reliability should rub off on this project.
I’m sure Lafayette’s presenters will be anxious. Convincing the folks at Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s that you are just a cut above the rest can result in huge savings for the people of Lafayette over the life of the project. This is just like a house mortgage in that respect: every fraction of a point really counts; especially over the full term of the loan. Come the 23rd and 24th of next month we should all light a candle.
With any luck we’ll have the money in hand for “Fiber Day,” July 16th–the anniversary of the referendum vote. That would really be something to celebrate.
