Ratings House Upgrades Cedar Park Public Debt

CEDAR PARK, TX -- City officials were in a celebratory mood on Friday after a credit ratings agency upgraded its debt.

International credit rating agency S&P Global (formerly Standard & Poor’s) raised the City

of Cedar Park’s General Obligation Bond debt from an AA rating to an AA+ rating, one notch below the highest rating the credit house issues. City officials noted the rating represents the third grade increase in the past 10 years for the City of Cedar Park. Additionally, S&P Global affirmed the City’s utility debt rating

of AA+, which it has held since 2013. Both AA+ ratings are just one category from a perfect rating of AAA, city officials noted.

A municipal bond rating is analogous to a credit score for an individual person, officials offered in the way of a comparison. A higher bond rating enables the City to issue debt at more favorable interest rates, allowing the city greater flexibility in refinancing existing debt at a lower interest rate – ultimately saving taxpayers

money.

City officials noted that receiving the upgraded bond rating upgrade at the beginning of the city’s bond program resulting from the successful November 2015 bond election, maximizes the benefit to Cedar Park

residents.

“The bonds that were passed last year will go further now,” Mayor Matt Powell said in a prepared statement. “If Cedar Park were a person our credit rating would be close to 800.”

City officials said that by being able to stretch bond dollars further, additional projects can be accomplished, benefiting the community as a whole. Bond ratings are also a gauge of a local local economy's health, they added.

“These ratings reflect our City Council’s fiscally responsible policies and practices as well as the growing economy over the last several years,” City Manager Brenda Eivens said in prepared remarks.