I’ve written before about the proposed Jefferson County Schools mill levy increase, issues 3A and 3B, which will be on the ballot this fall. The committee supporting the measure is named Citizens for JeffCo Schools (sic), and according to EdNews Colorado (confirmed by TRACER documents), it has raised a little under $50,000 this year. Twenty thousand of that comes from Robert W. Baird, an investment bank based in Wisconsin. Another $15,000 has come from FirstBank, meaning that the remainder of small contributions – under $15,000 – is less than the $15K from FirstBank.
Robert Baird, as it turns out, is the district’s investment banker, confirmed in the minutes of the June 14 School Board meeting (available here). This means that should the bond pass, Baird stands to make a fair amount of money underwriting the refi.
This cycling of money by investment banks back into bond referenda that they stand to benefit materially from is extremely distasteful, and has gotten attention before.
Someone should ask the 3A/3B proponents about this.
UPDATE: Go to JeffCo Students First Action to see what you can do to stop this measure.
