Middletown Maintains AAA Bond Rating: Mayor

MIDDLETOWN, CT — Middletown’s bond rating has been re-affirmed at AAA, the highest rating a city can receive, by Standard & Poors for the third straight year, Mayor Dan Drew announced on Friday morning.

“This is a particularly big deal because most Connecticut cities that have AAA ratings have much higher per capita incomes than Middletown,” Drew wrote in a post on Facebook. “That our city, with decidedly middle class incomes on average and a broad spectrum of people between poverty and wealth, has been consistently awarded the same rating means that we are successfully handling taxpayer funds, balancing economic growth, investing in education and critical services, and enhancing our infrastructure.”

Read more from Drew below:

Here are some highlights directly from the S&P ratings report:

“-Very strong economy;

-Strong management, with ‘good’ financial policies and practices under our Financial Management Assessment (FMA) methodology;

-Strong budgetary performance, with balanced operating results in the general fund but a slight operating deficit at the total governmental fund level in fiscal 2017;

-Very strong budgetary flexibility, with an available fund balance in fiscal 2017 of 19% of operating expenditures;

-Very strong liquidity, with total government available cash at 24.4% of total governmental fund expenditures and 3.4x governmental debt service, and access to external liquidity we consider strong;

-Very strong debt and contingent liability position, with debt service carrying charges at 7.2% of expenditures and net direct debt that is 45.6% of total governmental fund revenue, as well as low overall net debt at less than 3% of market value and rapid amortization, with 89.4% of debt scheduled to be retired in 10 years; and

-Strong institutional framework score.”

S&P reviewers wrote this of Middletown’s economy:

“We consider Middletown's economy very strong. The city, with an estimated population of 47,218, is in Middlesex County in the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford MSA, which we consider to be broad and diverse. It has a projected per capita effective buying income of 117% of the national level and per capita market value of $104,373. Overall, market value grew by 3.5% over the past year to an estimated $4.9 billion in 2019. The county unemployment rate was 4.4% in 2016.”

S&P reviewers wrote this of our management practices:

“We view the city's management as strong, with ‘good’ financial policies and practices under our FMA methodology, indicating financial practices exist in most areas, but that governance officials might not formalize or monitor all of them on a regular basis.”

Again, I’d like to thank everyone involved in making this happen – our entire staff, especially the Finance and Planning staffs, the Common Council, and the business community. This is a team effort and everyone has had a hand in ensuring success.

S&P reviewers wrote this of our budgetary strength:

“Middletown's budgetary flexibility is very strong, in our view, with an available fund balance in fiscal 2017 of 19% of operating expenditures, or $30.9 million. Over the past three years, the total available fund balance has remained at a consistent level overall, totaling 18% of expenditures in 2016 and 18% in 2015.”

This report is an indication that Middletown is one of the strongest cities in the State of Connecticut positioned for continued economic growth and prosperity.

Thank you!

Mayor Daniel Drew