The thing that gets me is that this Jim Trogdon character evidently really thought — on some level — that NC DOT could guarantee private debt without much input or explicit advance approval from the state treasurer. Like NC DOT was just dealing with another vendor, selling pens and copy paper.
I have no doubt NC DOT would very much like this ability and probably thinks it already has it, hence the activity of the past few weeks. But if the state is party to an agreement between construction contractors and lenders over millions in debt, acting as the final guarantor of the loan, I don’t see how that does not count against the state’s debt limit.
Now if the contractors want to go out and get the financing on their own, finish 485, and then submit an invoice, that is another transaction entirely. But I don’t think they could get the financing without the explicit state backstop.
