Mayor Bob Kiss Applauds Latest Drop In Burlington Credit Rating, Expresses Optimism That “Bottom Can’t Be Far Now”
The Free Press is reporting that Moody’s has again downgraded Burlington’s credit rating, this time from A2 to A3. Of course the city’s overall rating isn’t the only financial blowback from the Burlington Telecom debacle: Burlington Electric’s rating is now lower than the city it powers, and the airport has been dropped over the last year to Ba1, junk status. All direct collateral damage.
Bob Kiss, left, and Jonathan Leopold, right
Not to mention the Burlington School District, which has had to contend with about a half a million dollars in lost revenue due to BT’s sharp reduction in payment in lieu of taxes. As a schoolboard member, that last stung most of all.
These once-embarrassing and now-frightening drops in credit rating have been methodical, as is Moody’s wont: down, down, down, one cold-blooded step at a time.
If pressed to assign an adjective to the trend here represented, VDB would suggest: “Alarming/Negative/Hair on Fire.”
But not Bob Kiss. No. The punch line of the Free Press article is this sweet bit from Kiss: “I feel the trend in Moody’s comments are positive in recognizing the strengths of the city.”
Wow.
Now, look, VDB understands spin and the political needs that underlie it. But denial of reality is, generally speaking, counter-productive. Which is to say that spin only works to the extent that the spinner’s mind can be perceived, itself, to be working.
Intervention time for Burlington Progressives. And that’s no joke.
on March 2nd, 2011 at 8:00 pm
[…] I’ve written other columns about this Mayor, and I’ve always offered him advice — maybe not advice he could or would accept, but advice that certainly couldn’t have made his situation any worse. […]