Greenburgh Receives 'Triple A' Ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's

Bond rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s both recently gave the Town of Greenburgh ”triple A” marks, the highest ratings from both establishments.

The high ratings will allow the town to borrow money at low interest rates, which Town Supervisor Paul Feiner estimates will save taxpayers about $300,000.

“Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a Aaa rating to the Town of Greenburgh’s (NY) $18.4 million general obligation bonds consisting of $7.2 million Public Improvement Refunding (Serial) Bonds, 2015 and $11.2 million Public Improvement (Serial) Bonds, 2015,” the agency said in a release. “Concurrently, we have affirmed the Aaa rating on the town’s outstanding debt. Post-sale, the town will have $78.7 million debt outstanding.”

In both cases, the community’s affluence, solid fiscal management and relatively low overall debt burden helped the agencies reach their ratings conclusions.

“About two years ago I was advised that only 1 percent of all local governments in the United States have a triple A bond rating from both bond rating agencies,” said Feiner in a statement.

Standard & Poor’s rating of Greenburgh states in part, “The long-term rating on Greenburgh is rated above the sovereign because we believe the town can maintain better credit characteristics than the U.S. in a stress scenario based on its predominantly locally derived revenue base and our view that pledged revenue supporting debt service on the bonds is at limited risk of negative sovereign intervention. Intergovernmental revenue from the federal government accounted for just 0.08 percent of the town’s revenue base in fiscal 2014.”

Moody’s added, “The town’s wealth levels are well above the state and national averages with median family income equal to twice the national average. In recent years the town has seen material new development reflected in building permits that exceed budget estimates and recent projects expected to add to the tax rolls. These projects include the Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc. expansion, with the company acting as anchor tenant for a growing bio-research area and anticipated mixed use development. In addition, the Avalon Green residential development is currently undertaking its phase III expansion. Also, the town’s unemployment rate of 4.4 percent (July 2015) continues to trend well below the state (5.4 percent ) and US (5.6 percent).”