As Connecticut considers changes to a number of entities and mechanisms that touch the bond-finance process, a municipal-finance law expert says state agencies are newly energized under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s myriad programs to promote growth.
Pullman & Comley attorney John Stafstrom Jr. has structured bond financing deals for some of the biggest economic development projects in Connecticut of late, most prominently the lightning deal with Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, to create a genetics lab in Farmington, and the Harbor Point development south of Stamford”™s train station that has continued chugging along throughout the recession and recovery.
Stafstrom also led Bridgeport-based Pullman & Comley”™s bid to land the legal services contract as the state sets up a Connecticut Airport Authority to increase economic development around Bradley International Airport.
The municipal finance industry continues to monitor public appetite for new public debt entering spring. The Government Finance Officers of Connecticut made credit rating agencies”™ “temperament” a focus of their February meeting, which included a panel discussion with representatives from Standard & Poor”™s, Moody”™s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings.
As Moody”™s analyst Dora Lee puts it, the end of federal stimulus funding makes 2012 an even more stressful year for state and local governments, even as Malloy overhauls how Connecticut does business.
“I think we have the tools to be on the cutting edge,” Stafstrom said. “But the thing that makes a real difference is the people utilizing those tools. Governor Malloy is saying, ”˜Let”™s use the tools”™ ”¦ There”™s a very, very different attitude at the state agencies. There”™s not a ”˜We can”™t do this.”™ There”™s a ”˜How can we do it?”™”
Connecticut caught wind last summer of Jackson Lab”™s search for a new lab locale and landed the $1.1 billion deal within weeks. Connecticut Innovations Inc. and the University of Connecticut brought Pullman & Comley in on the deal in December, with Stafstrom”™s team working late through the holidays to complete a $290 million bond financing package by early January.
“A deal like this is always very difficult because people have certain expectations going in,” Stafstrom said. “In deals like this, it”™s always the last two weeks when you start to put details to paper that it gets harder.”
The Harbor Point deal involved structuring a 30-year tax sharing agreement with the city of Stamford and issuing $145 million in bonds to finance the public infrastructure.
Connecticut is currently considering an expansion of the tax increment financing mechanisms under which expected future tax revenue from developments is used to secure bond financing and provide cash to get shovels in the ground (see story on pg. 18).
Stafstrom nurtured his niche in municipal finance law after serving on the Bridgeport City Council in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He studied law at the University of Connecticut where he was editor of the Connecticut Law Review. He attended the College of the Holy Cross as an undergraduate.
“It was a natural evolution for me because I”™ve always been involved in the public sector,” Stafstrom said. “I”™ve always enjoyed putting together a deal together and getting it done. If it”™s for the public good ”“ all the better.”
