The county's financial position is extremely strong and its frequent and sizable funding of capital needs from operations and healthy funding of General Fund reserves evidence ample financial flexibility. Strong financial management and planning policies provide further assurance that annual appropriations for certificate payments will be made in a full and timely manner.
Legal provisions are solid.
Under the terms of the purchase and trust agreements, Montgomery County grants the trustee a first priority interest in its ownership of the equipment, for the benefit of certificate owners. Payments are subject to annual appropriation, which the county covenants to request each year in its budget. The adopted budget for fiscal 2002 includes an appropriation for this payment and the 5-year budget forecast includes annual payments through the final maturity on the certificates. The county is prohibited from substituting functionally similar or competitive equipment for the purchased equipment for the life of the certificates. Additional certificates may be issued on a parity basis only for the purpose of providing additional funds to complete the acquisition of the equipment, which is unlikely given that the county has accepted fixed bids for the acquisition of the equipment.