Hamilton County has once more been reaffirmed with a Triple A Bond Rating by each of the three major bond rating agencies.
Hamilton County has maintained this distinction since 2011 and is the only county in Tennessee to receive this valued rating from all three rating agencies. Standard and Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s have all issued Triple A reports praising Hamilton County’s financial health earning the coveted Triple A rating.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said he was pleased that the three rating agencies have once again acknowledged Hamilton County’s conservative financial approach. “In this difficult time it is rewarding all three ratings agencies have acknowledged Hamilton County’s long term conservative fiscal policies which have allowed the county to anticipate and weather unexpected events such as the Coronavirus.”
Mayor Coppinger went on to praise his departmental leadership, constitutional officers and most importantly the financial team led by Al Kiser, Lee Brouner and Vonda Patrick, all of whom contributed to Hamilton County’s continuing conservative financial stability.
An opinion shared by Standard and Poor’s Financial Services who once again said. “ We view the county’s management as very strong, with strong financial policies and practices under our financial management assessment methodology, indicating our view that financial practices are strong, well embedded and likely sustainable.”
The Fitch Rating Agency acknowledged the impact the Coronavirus has had on local economies and applauded the financial efforts made by Hamilton County in this economically challenging time period. “For Fiscal 2021 the county budgeted for flat overall general fund revenues and for declines in certain revenue items such as the state’s gasoline and fuel tax and gross receipts tax. The county plans to leave vacant non-essential positions in fiscal 2021 and did not provide for any raises at the county or department of education for the fiscal year.”
Moody’s Investment Services also acknowledged the Coronavirus in their evaluation but noted Hamilton County is already on the economic rebound. “The county’s largest employers, while slowed operations and staffing during the economic shutdown have started to return to normal operations and the local economy is expected to slowly return to normal in the near term. The county’s core operations have been supported by property taxes which have been trending fairly similar to previous years.”
Mayor Coppinger says this latest Triple A endorsement will let Hamilton County take advantage of current low interest rates and borrow money at the lowest available market interest rate. “This will allow us to spend 45 million dollars on additional capital improvements for county general government and also finance approximately 17 million dollars in capital improvements for Hamilton County’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority.”
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