Moody's Investors Service Confirms Hingham's Credit Rating

Moody's Investors Service has confirmed Hingham’s AAA rating.

On July 13, Moody’s launched a review of five states and 131 local governments including Hingham with AAA ratings after there was question if Congress would raise of the debt ceiling.

whose credit ratings were in danger of being lowered because of the federal debt crisis.

“With the raising of the federal debt ceiling, the risk of a U.S. default is removed, and the AAA ratings assigned to the U.S. government, and directly and indirectly linked U.S. public finance ratings have been confirmed,” Moody’s Investors Service wrote on their website.

Last week, the credit agency said that it had confirmed those ratings, but revised the outlooks of the issuers to negative because of challenges still facing the federal government. It said it would review the outlooks in the next few weeks.

Although, Hingham’s credit ratings from Moody’s was threatened, Hingham Town Administrator and former Town Accountant Ted Alexiades was not concerned by the news.  Last week, Alexiades said the affect on Hingham residents would be minimal if Hingham’s credit rating was lowered by Moody’s because  the town still has two other credit rating agencies, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s.

“Fitch has currently reaffirmed our AAA and Standard & Poor’s also has reaffirmed our AAA,” Alexiades said.  “Moody’s is the only of three which has indicated that they may in fact provide a negative outlook to many of their AAA’s across the board in the United States of America.”

According to Alexiades, Hingham receives very little income from the Federal Government.

“We think that our AAA standing is as it is, because we manage our finances incredibly well and live within our means. If we were to be reduced by Moody's, there is a potential that when we issue debt in the future, the rate that would we would receive on it, will be higher than a AAA and that rate would be as high as a quarter of a point more.” 

State Representative Garrett Bradley said the Town of Hingham does a very good job of managing its finances.

"I am confident that local officials and Town Meeting will continue to exercise sound fiscal policy moving forward," Bradley said.  "Its excellent bond rating history, budget management practices and past fiscal performance makes Hingham a great financial investment even during these uncertain economic times.”

Earlier this year, the  received the award for the 15th consecutive year from the Government Finance Officers Association for fiscal year 2010. The award, which was established in 1945, is the highest honor given in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting.