Thursday, April 4, 2013
The effective interest rate of about 2.39 percent on the county's new debt compares favorably with other recent municipal bonds issued in the region, Uri Monson said.
Montgomery County successfully auctioned $55 million in bonds this week, garnering interest from ten banks and investment firms before agreeing to sell the bonds to PNC Capital Markets at an interest rate of 2.39 percent. Uri Monson, the county's chief financial officer, said the county did "very well" in the bond issuance, with interest costs that he said compare favorably with other recent municipal bonds sold in the region. A much larger, $950 million bond issuance by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hit the market at the same time as the county's bonds and obtained an interest rate of about 2.9 percent. Monson said that Moody's Investors Service rated the state's debt at Aa2, a notch below Montgomery County's Aa1 rating. A $65 million …
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Moody's downgrade was tempered by a change in outlook from 'negative' to 'stable.'
A leading ratings agency cut the rating on the bulk of Montgomery County's debt on Thursday, citing the county's depleted fund reserves after "several years of sizable operating deficits." $417 million in county bonds were downgraded from Moody's Investors Service's top rating of 'Aaa' to 'Aa1,' the next tier down on the ratings scale. The new rating will make it slightly more expensive for the county to issue additional debt. Moody's had warned the county last December that its debt rating could be downgraded if negative fiscal trends continued. The bad news for the county's creditworthiness was offset somewhat by Moody's accompanying announcement that the county's outlook was upgraded from "negative," as it was assessed last December, to…
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Ratings agency says county's general fund balance of 5.5 percent of budgeted expenditures is 'inconsistent' with top credit rating.
Citing "a sizeable decline in the county's general fund balance following several years of large operating deficits," Fitch Ratings today downgraded more than $18 million in debt issued by the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority from its highest "AAA" rating to a rating of "AA+." In a statement issued to the media, Josh Shapiro, chairman of the county's Board of Commissioners, called the downgrade and its associated report "disappointing because we have just begun to turn things around and dig ourselves out of the hole." "Today’s report from Fitch and their downgrade of the Redevelopment Authority’s bond rating to 'AA+' makes clear that the irresponsible spending over the past four years severely depleted the reserve fund to an …
Mike Shortall
8:45 pm on Saturday, July 21, 2012
Anyone who paid attention last year knew there was something wrong financially with the County. Castor tried to warn everyone about Matthews and Hoeffel's little magic act. If they had been forced to come clean, Shapiro and Richards never would have been abe to stick to their campaign pledge leading up to the election, and they won't be able to next year either. more ›