Sometimes, even losing campaigns can have a salutary impact:
A Wilmington area lawmaker who had served as a key ally to the embattled leadership at the Port of Wilmington sent a letter to Delaware’s governor and secretary of state Monday expressing frustration that the operator of the publicly owned and privately run facility has not made a lease payment in more than a year – indicating a delinquent amount to taxpayers of at least $3 million.
Despite the “breach of contract,” Delaware has continued “to contribute financially to the port in ways that appear to conflict with the terms of the original lease agreement,” Rep. Debra Heffernan-D, Bellefonte, said in the letter.
She said she is “not inclined” to support new amendments to the state’s lease of the port to GT USA Wilmington until the facility’s financial problems “have been addressed to the satisfaction of the public and myself.”
This reflects a 180-degree change from her burying language favorable to the Port operators and to the Secretary of State in the FY ’23 Bond Bill. Raising the question, ‘Has the horse already fled the barn?’
As for Carney and Secretary of State Bullock, they’re not talking:
Over the past year, Delaware government officials provided few details about the true financial condition of the port, which generates thousands of well-paying, blue-collar jobs.
When asked Tuesday about the new board of directors, Secretary of State Jeff Bullock said GT USA’s creditors – to which it owes $100 million – “exercised their ability under a lending agreement to name an independent board with the goals of expanding growth” at the Port of Wilmington.
He declined to say whether the creditors, a group reportedly led by AIG, had terminated GT USA under the terms of its lending contract.
When emailed for comment, an official for AIG — a massive global insurance company — referred the inquiry to its subsidiary Corebridge Financial, which declined to comment. Corebridge manages and invests more than $350 billion in assets.
GT USA Wilmington said in a statement Wednesday that it reconfigured its board as “a part of the further development of the Port.”
The company said securing the money to develop a new container terminal in Edgemoor – a key term of its lease deal with the state – “is a central priority.”
Oh, yes. That.
Does Rep. Heffernan now oppose the dredging that would accompany the Edgemoor project and would create environmental hazards for the community? The answer to that question will determine whether this is a legitimate religious conversion or merely a conversion of convenience.
Still, this is quite the encouraging development.