Montgomery County, TN – Montgomery County Government is pleased to announce that its 2015 general obligation refunding bonds have been assigned an AA+ (Stable) rating by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services.
Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett states, “We are very pleased to again receive the rating of AA+ (Stable), as very few counties receive such a great rating and even fewer maintain it. This shows our commitment to being good stewards of tax-payer dollars.”
The rating reflects the following factors for Montgomery County
- Strong economy, with access to a broad and diverse metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and a local stabilizing institutional influence;
- Strong management, with “good” financial policies;
- Adequate budgetary performance, with an operating deficit in the general fund but balanced operating results at the total governmental fund level;
- Very strong budgetary flexibility, with an available fund balance in fiscal 2014 of 27% of operating expenditures;
- Very strong liquidity, with total government available cash at 92.3% of total governmental fund expenditures and 2.7x governmental debt service, and access to external liquidity we consider strong;
- Weak debt and contingent liability position, with debt service carrying charges of 33.8% and net direct debt that is 308.0% of total governmental fund revenue, but rapid amortization, with 76.2% of debt scheduled to be retired within 10 years; and
- Very strong institutional framework score.
Standard and Poor’s, a division of McGraw Hill Financial, provides ratings that are a tool to evaluate credit risk and the likelihood that debt issued by companies and governments will be repaid in full and on time. To learn more about Standard and Poor’s, visit ratings.standardandpoors.com.
The AA+ (Stable) bond rating recently received from Standard and Poor is verification that Montgomery County Government’s excellent financial management practices make it extremely attractive to investors in the bond market.
