The city conferred with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office about Citigroup’s ability to adhere with a state gun law before turning down the fifth-biggest underwriter of Texas municipal-bond deals.
Frances La Rue, a spokesperson for Anna, said in a statement that officials chose the second-lowest bid after discussions with the office of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and the municipality’s legal counsel and financial adviser. The attorney general’s office, which oversees most bond sales in Texas, said Friday that it is still reviewing Citigroup’s ability to comply with the state’s gun law.
Anna, a city of about 20,000 people northeast of Dallas, awarded the sale to Robert W. Baird & Co., which hasn’t been affected by the new laws. It will cost the city an estimated $277,334 additionally over more than 25 years to work with Baird instead of Citigroup, according to the city spokesperson.
In an emailed statement Friday, Paxton said the office had received a complaint that Citigroup’s policies would constitute discrimination against the firearm industry, violating the gun measure, known as SB 19. “We do not believe the claims made by a third-party organization have any merit and we continue to support our clients in this important market,” he said in a statement.
Small government? $532M in increased costs due to this nonsense.
Sounds sensible. Texas is nothing without guns and fossil fuels evidently.