Thursday September 3rd, 2009 - 9:49AM

Maritime Park bonds 'AA' rated

Posted 9/2/2009 10:52 PM EDT on pnj.com Prod

The City of Pensacola could use a bit of good news when it comes to its approaching plans to issue $40 million in bonds for the Community Maritime Park.

And it recently got some.

Fitch Rating Agency in New York has given the City of Pensacola a ‘AA’ bond rating for the Maritime Park bonds. It recently published this rating.

The rating does say a lot in this economy, considering a ‘AAA’ rating is tops.

Fitch also assigned a ‘AA’ rating to the city’s roughly $20 million in outstanding Capital Improvement Bonds, and an ‘AA’ implied General Obligation Bond rating.

In awarding the rating, Fitch noted that, "Financial results of the city have historically been strong with the city concentrating on essential services and structural balance during the current period of stagnant revenues. They found conservative financial management demonstrated by healthy reserve levels and manageable debt levels. The fiscal 2010 budget is balanced with no use of reserves."

The city is still considering whether to issue tax-exempt bonds or Build America Bonds.