OBJECTION! No more revenue bonds for turnpikes in Oklahoma that aren't justified and don't make money

Council of Bond Oversight to review application for $1.6 BILLION today at 10 am

In my last post, I talked about the continuing ridiculosity of the entire Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s business model of obtaining BILLIONS in revenue bond debt to build destructive turnpikes that no one wants or needs, all with NEGATIVE revenue models.

And these negative revenue models are models they PAY A FIRM TO CREATE. We didn’t make them up.

But the Council of Bond Oversight (COBO), the statutorily required “appointed” board (as opposed to an elected board that has to answer to the citizens) that must approve bond sales for the state hasn’t been doing their job.

To fair, they’ve never done their job correctly or ethically, but these days it is *so* blatantly in our faces.

I mean, shoot.

The deficit cash flow over 30 years on the East-West Connector and the Southern Extension ALONE is north of NINE BILLION DOLLARS!!!!

How hard is it for anyone with rudimentary math skills to DENY the application for revenue bond sales when over thirty years, they will be NINE BILLION DOLLARS SHORT on their payments?

What normal person can get a credit line or a mortgage with zero proof they can pay it back?

Why would any competent financial analyst entrusted with ensuring agencies/municipalities are making sound fiduciary decisions allow a bond sale to occur with such a terrible revenue projection and bond debt payoff chances?

Because the fix is in.

The Council of Bond Oversite (COBO) board isn’t real. They are a rubber stamping club appointed by the governor full of Chamber of Commerce, crony capitalists who don’t even read the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s applications, let alone have the capacity to understand what they mean.

Yesterday, I presented the PIKE OFF OTA financial analysis and one of our objections and calls for postponement.

Today, I wanted to present the second objection based on material violations of the master trust agreement and bond payoff criteria that must be met in order for revenue bond sales to occur.

OBJECTION: The OTA’s proposal to issue over $1.6 BILLION in additional bonds is not in compliance with Oklahoma law or the OTA’s master trust agreement

Have you read the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s Master Trust Agreement? All 2000 plus pages if it? Of course you haven’t. They were not easily accessible until we open record requested every single supplement written for every single bond sale back to 1950. We have archived them on the PIKE OFF OTA website under “Rabbit Hole” if you’d like to check them out.

One of our researchers does a bang-up job of detailing all the violations of the Master Trust Agreement that I presented yesterday. I encourage you to read the summary.

But today, with no time to spare, I wanted to present you the second objection we lobbed at COBO just yesterday, less than 24 hours after we were notified OTA was on the agenda.

I hope you made it to the Capitol in support of our objections and postponement request and if you are a member of the media, I hope you cover this story and KEEP covering this story, because it’s important.

I will write more later, but for now let’s keep our fingers crossed that COBO honors our objection and postponement request. More importantly, let’s hope that someone, somewhere, with the authority and resolve to hold the OTA accountable, steps in and puts an end to its pattern of lawbreaking and reckless financial decisions—decisively and with the strength our communities deserve. This fight is far from over. Stay tuned.

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