The city’s credit rating has been upgraded.
Every year, city council engages Standard and Poor’s Rating Services to issue and update to the city’s credit rating.
The rating is a forward-looking opinion about creditworthiness, based on factors such as economy, financial management, liquidity and debt burden.
In the most recent report — published October 6 — the city’s rating has been upgraded from positive (A+) to stable (AA-) .
Standard and Poor’s attributes the upgrade to ‘exceptional liquidity and strong budgetary performance.’
In a report to council, Commissioner of Finance Shelly Schell said, “The upgrade reflects our expectations that, in the next two years relative to previous forecasts, revenue volatility and capital expenditures will be lower, resulting in stronger budgetary performance; and the city’s debt burden will also fall.”
The Standard & Poor’s report states the city demonstrates satisfactory financial management, its economic performance as average and budgetary performance as strong.
The report states a future outlook could be revised to negative or lower the rating if the city were to experience an economic shock.