At last night’s City-County Council budget meeting, talk of potholes, pay raises, and police staffing took an interesting detour — straight into the power grid. A few councilors and activists floated the idea of the city issuing billions in revenue bonds to buy out AES Indiana and “take control of our power to lower rates.”
It’s the political equivalent of yelling “I’m Batman!”—it feels great in the moment, but with all due respect, the physics don’t add up.
How It’s Supposed to Work
In theory, the city would create or expand a municipal utility, sell billions in revenue bonds, and use the proceeds to buy AES’s local operation. Because the bonds are “revenue-backed,” they’re repaid not by taxpayers but by—you guessed it—ratepayers. Meaning your light bill becomes the mortgage payment on City Hall’s new toy.
Once the takeover was done, the city would manage the power grid, hire hundreds of new employees, and somehow make everything cheaper, greener, and smoother than a company that’s been doing it for decades. Sure…