ABSTRACT
Several years ago, the Council ofinfrastructure Financing Authorities (CIFA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsored a conference on the financing of small water and wastewater projects. Among the presentations at the conference was one on the FmHA "buyback" program. This program derived from the Reagan Administration's effort to reduce the federal deficit. In this case, local water and wastewater districts were offered the opportunity to "buy back" loans which they had obtained from the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The idea, of course, was that the government would accept a discount, i.e., less than full value on the loans. This would, in turn, produce a savings which was the presumed inducement for the small systems to buy back the loans.
