For Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD — “Municipal bonds are essential for communities like Marshfield to affordably build critical infrastructure and provide residents with essential services, and they should remain tax-exempt,” is a message local officials and utility managers delivered in person to members of Congress on March 7-9 in Washington during the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Legislative Rally.

Utility Commissioners Mike Eberl, John Maggitti, and Harry Borgman, along with Mayor Chris Meyer and Marshfield Utilities General Manager Bob Trussoni, participated in the national event.

Across the U.S. public power utilities, like municipally owned Marshfield Utilities, make $20 billion in new investments financed with municipal bonds each year. This helps them affordably finance the power generation, distribution, efficiency, and emissions controls equipment needed to deliver safe, affordable, and reliable electricity for local customers.

“As Congress continues to consider possible approaches to tax reform and deficit reduction, we urged them to help us keep costs down by preserving the current tax exemption for municipal bonds,” said Trussoni. “Marshfield Utilities would see approximately $300,000 more in bond interest if the existing debt was not tax-exempt.”

Marshfield attendees, along with the rest of the APPA group, met with Sens. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin, House Speaker Paul Ryan’s assistant Maryam Brown, and Rep. Shawn Duffy’s assistant Ryan McCormack during the visit.

Other topics at the meetings included ensuring that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules for carbon emissions do not result in grid reliability issues and making sure that local utilities can provide customers with the renewable energy options that they want while also protecting worker safety, system reliability, and the equitable allocation of costs.