Senate candidate Tim Sheehy's firm promised jobs and more to a Montana county. It's still waiting.
After Tim Sheehy's firm persuaded officials in Gallatin County, Montana to issue $160 million in bonds so it could expand locally, the firm used most of the money to pay off previous investors.
Bridger Aerospace Group, a Montana-based aerial firefighting company helmed by Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, was losing money in 2020 when its top executives made a business pitch to elected officials in the county where it’s based.
At a recorded public meeting, the executives asked whether Bridger could use Gallatin County’s name and pristine credit rating to raise $160 million in a municipal bond offering. If the three county commissioners said yes, Bridger would gain access to lower-cost money to expand its operations.
Gallatin County would also benefit from the deal, company officials promised. The money, they said, would be used to hire more workers, build two airplane hangars at the Bozeman airport with a local construction company and increase firefighting capacity in the region. And if the worst were to happen and Bridger defaulted on the debt, Gallatin County wouldn’t be on the hook.
A win-win-win, the executives said.
Some of the county commissioners expressed hesitancy, the recording shows. Bridger was a startup — just over five years old — one pointed out; another said the county had never done a deal like that at such a scale.
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