I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
You know those financial deals — called interest-rate swaps — that CDR Financial put together for the New Mexico Finance Authority as an adviser on the GRIP project? (These are deals that are part of the focus of an ongoing federal probe that has reached into the governor’s office.) Well, it seems that because the “complex contracts” were made with a variable interest rate, the state is now at risk and has had to post about $16 million in collateral. The entire piece by Colleen Heild and Mike Gallagher at the Albuquerque Journal is worth the read. But here is the part that really got me:
CDR was paid more than $950,000 out of bond proceeds, but Finance Authority boss Bill Sisneros, who took over after the initial deal with CDR was done, says the company’s role in the bond transaction isn’t clear.
He said, “CDR was paid by the counter-parties in the swaps, so there is a question of who they were advising.” The swaps have saved the state about $8 million in lower interest costs since they were approved in 2004, Duff said.
Um, is this a roundabout way of saying the NMFA is pretty clear that the state’s financial adviser was actually looking out for the interests of the banks that were our “counter-parties”?
Sounds like it to me.
Just to remind folks: CDR Financial is the company at the heart of the federal investigation into whether “pay-to-play” deals were made with the Richardson administration. CDR was hired to advise the NMFA in 2004 regarding how to refinance state transportation debt in such a way that the state would save money. The outcome has been the ability to build such things as the Rail Runner Express from Belen to Santa Fe. Since then, CDR has been accused of colluding with banks to “bid rig” in the municipal bond market across the nation.
