Brookhaven receives “Double Triple-A” credit rating

Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s give Brookhaven highest grade

Brookhaven, GA, July 24, 2018 – Today, both Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s Investor Services (Moody’s) graded the financial health, management and fiscal policies of the City of Brookhaven, each giving the city the highest rating: S&P rated Brookhaven AAA, Moody’s awarded the City Aaa.

“The overwhelming majority of people believe in their local governments and want a sound, sustainable infrastructure, and they proved it with their votes,” said Mayor John Ernst.  “The evaluations from Moody’s and S&P are a powerful endorsement of our work so far.”

“The AAA ratings affirm the sound and prudent financial practices; the strength and stability of our management team; the legitimacy of Strategic Plans; the strength of the City’s economic base; and the long-term economic outlook,” said City Manager Christian Sigman.

“As the CFO for Brookhaven, my mission has been and will continue to be implementation of strong financial policies and controls.  With today’s AAA affirmations from S&P and Moody’s citing the strong management, strong budgetary controls and strong fiscal policies, the City has attained the gold standard in the eyes of the financial markets,” said Brookhaven CFO Steven Chapman.

Both AAA ratings are for the construction of the Peachtree Creek Greenway, financed through the Brookhaven Public Facilities Authority using a dedicated portion of Brookhaven’s Hotel-Motel tax receipts. 

When describing their evaluation, Moody’s cited “[the] city’s large, growing tax base with strong resident income and wealth levels, a healthy financial position and manageable fixed cost” in its report.

In its report, S&P said “Brookhaven's bonds are eligible to be rated above the sovereign [US federal government] because we believe the city can maintain better credit characteristics than the nation in a stress scenario... The nation's institutional framework for local governments is predictable, allowing the city significant autonomy and independent treasury management. In addition, there is no history of government intervention.”

S&P report itemized factors which led to the rating, which included:

·         Very strong economy, with access to a broad and diverse metropolitan statistical area (MSA);

·         Very strong management, with "strong" financial policies and practices under our Financial Management Assessment (FMA) methodology;

·         Very strong budgetary performance, with operating surpluses in the general fund and at the total governmental fund level in fiscal 2017;

·         Very strong budgetary flexibility, with an available fund balance in fiscal 2017 of 40% of operating expenditures;

“This allows us to get the biggest bang for the buck, as we avoid high interest payments,” said Mayor John Ernst.  “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are already underway.  This is a testament to the strength of the Brookhaven economy, the responsible stewardship of our finance department, and the collaboration of our resident stakeholders.”