Earlier this afternoon, I watched the Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting online. The commissioners should be happy I didn’t carbon footprint my way down to their chambers, and had I walked the twenty-mile round trip, the scarcity created by my food consumption would no doubt reverberate detrimentally on the food deserts.
Anyway, the commissioners went through the motions to award Plasticard-LockTech a $4,250,000 loan through the The Buncombe County Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority. County Attorney Mike Frue assured the folks the move exacted neither obligation nor expenditure from the county treasury.
What they will do is, the Industrial Facility Authority will issue the bonds, or sign on the dotted line. And what they do is find a private placement, ususally GE Corporate Credits. So they would buy it, and they’re sort of like the bank, and any defaulting would not be an obligation of the taxpayers.
In other words, the county is running interference for GE, that great recipient of corporate welfare and lobbyist for the demise of incandescent light bulbs and who knows what-all, so they may in turn help government get rid of evil bankers by stealing their business away, too. Remember, GE had to government money for its expansions in North Carolina, presumably because its credit was too bad to get anything from its own giant lending arm.
