BRADENTON, Fla. – Ben Watkins, a 30-year public finance veteran and outspoken defender of tax-exempt municipal bonds, will receive the third annual Jim Lebenthal Infrastructure Champion award.
Watkins, the director of Florida's Division of Bond Finance, a bond attorney, and a certified public accountant, will be honored at The Bond Buyer's National Outlook Conference in New York Jan. 31.
The award is named after Jim Lebenthal, a pioneer of the municipal bond industry who helped make tax-exempt securities a household name with his salesmanship and family-run boutique business in New York City for nearly 50 years. He died in 2014.
Jim Lebenthal was "a great leader in our business," said Watkins, who added that he is flattered and humbled to receive the award named after a man he considers an icon in the muni industry.
"In many respects," Watkins said, "I viewed Jim – especially in these days of great scrutiny and oversight and the lack of appreciation in D.C. for what the tax-exempt industry means to the country – as a bright light and a dark knight because I never saw the man complain, he had a sparkle in his eyes and a smile on his face every time I saw him, and he was enthusiastic as hell about the tax-exempt bond market.
"The other thing that was contagious about him, and the reason that he was so much fun to be around, was his passion about the industry. He truly understood the importance that the tax exempt bond market plays in financing the nation's infrastructure."
An unfettered activist of public financing himself, Watkins has spent years advocating for issuers on the job and in his work with the Government Finance Officers Association and chairing its debt management committee, with the National Association of State Treasurers, on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board from 2001 to 2004, and with the National Association of Bond Lawyers, among others.
Alexandra Lebenthal, chief executive officer of Lebenthal & Co. LLC, said her father would have approved of this year's award winner as someone who "treats the sanctity of the power to issue debt to build and rebuild this country with the greatest of respect.
"One of the wonderful things about this award is to put myself in my father's place and think about the people in the industry for whom he had respect and admiration," she said. "When I think of Ben Watkins he fits the bill."
Michael Ballinger, publisher of The Bond Buyer, agreed with her assessment.
"Jim Lebenthal was a tireless champion of municipal bonds and was extremely passionate about the important role that our industry plays in rebuilding and enhancing our nation's infrastructure," Ballinger said. "To honor his legacy, we are delighted to give the third annual Jim Lebenthal Infrastructure Champion award to Ben Watkins, an individual who embodies that spirit."
Watkins, 59, has directed financings for the state of Florida since 1995. Before that he spent eight years as a bond attorney with Macfarlane Ausley Ferguson & McMullen in Tallahassee and Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan in Atlanta. His career began in 1979 as a CPA for KPMG Peat Marwick in Atlanta.
Born in Tallahassee, Watkins received a bachelor's degree in business administration with concentration in accounting from Auburn University. He received a law degree with honors at the University of Florida.
In 2009, Watkins received an Industry Contribution Award for his work on disclosure practices from the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.
"Ben is a person I've known for a long time, and I respect his knowledge and judgment," said Frank Hoadley, Wisconsin's longtime capital finance director who retired in 2012. "He's always been at the forefront of defending munis from particular actions by Congress and by the IRS, and has been rather fearless about sticking his nose into those kinds of dark places."
Bond attorney Albert del Castillo, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig PA, said he considers Watkins a champion of munis and a "real thought leader" in the industry who weighs in on salient topics that have helped shape municipal finance policies.
"Ben's done a terrific job for Florida in his position as director of the Division of Bond Finance. He's the consummate professional," said del Castillo, who has known Watkins for 20 years. "His name is almost synonymous with public finance in Florida and beyond because he's made a significant contribution to the municipal finance industry."
Watkins' devotion to munis makes him an "excellent choice" to receive the Lebenthal award, said Jonas Biery, chairman of the GFOA Committee on Governmental Debt Management and business operations manager for the Portland, Ore., Bureau of Environmental Services.
"There's no question he's been a really strong advocate for states and locals especially with regard to municipal borrowing and infrastructure development," Biery said. "He's been a great friend and mentor to me and other next generation leaders of the industry."
Protecting municipal bonds must remain a No. 1 priority for issuers, Watkins said.
The tax exemption is still in the crosshairs of lawmakers "maybe now more than ever" with one party in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
"Gridlock was our friend," Watkins said, referring to the split control of Congress that helped delay previous efforts to enact tax reform and changes to the exemption on bond interest.
"We can no longer rely on gridlock," he said, adding that his plans are to meet "eyeball to eyeball" with policymakers to explain the value of munis in financing the nation's infrastructure.
"The danger," he said, "is that they will do something inadvertently because they don't understand the implication and the adverse consequences to building out our infrastructure that harming tax exempt bonds would inflict."
What will he explain to lawmakers?
"We've got the greatest credit markets in the world," Watkins said. "There is nothing like it on planet earth that can finance a $250,000 fire truck or a $2.5 billion power plant and everything in between for every state and local government across this great country.
"Why would you want to screw that up?"
Another threat to public financing, he said, is the suggestion that public-private partnerships will be a component of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed infrastructure finance program.
Watkins, who favors tax-exempt bonds as the lowest cost of borrowing compared to financing projects through P3s, said the new infrastructure plan should "rest on the cornerstone of preserving the extraordinary market that we currently enjoy."
Federal officials have asked GFOA for feedback on the type of funding plan that has yet to be implemented.
"It's an opportunity to educate," Watkins said. "I think once they understand they will be much less likely to do something that would have a deleterious impact on public financing of infrastructure, assuming infrastructure is a priority of the incoming administration, which they say it is."
In addition to receiving the Lebenthal award, Watkins will participate in a panel on "Tax Reform's Renewed Threats to Municipals and Potential Legal Changes" at the National Outlook Conference to be held at the Metropolitan Club in New York City on Jan. 31.
