The article on the city's bond rating is reprinted on Page B4 today and the article on the Blue Ribbon nomination for W.C. Andrews School is reprinted on Page B6 today. The initiatives on the ballot include bonds for streets, parks, public safety services, seawall repairs, an arena and a sales tax for economic development. Ratings of AAA or Aaa are the highest. Not poor, not excellent, but good. These ratings would be similar to the ones for the proposed Nov. 7 bond proposals, he said.
Investors use the ratings reports to decide which bonds to buy.
The better the report, the lower interest rates are and the less tax revenue the city must raise to pay for the interest. He added bond ratings are important to a city because they are typically used to fund big, long-term public works projects. Bad ratings eventually could harm the city's quality of services and result in higher taxes. In the ratings reports, Moody's gave the city a stable outlook for paying the most recent bonds, while Standard and Poor's gave it a negative one. Moody's cited as reasons for stability the City Council's recent commitment to adopt balanced budgets, a moderate economic growth projection for the area and relatively low debt.