Oakland County's AAA bond rating reaffirmed

Standard & Poor's (S&P) has reaffirmed Oakland County's AAA bond rating on the heels of Moody's Investors Service awarding the county its highest bond rating. This latest bond issuance will fund $2.5 million of improvements in various Oak Park municipal buildings--saving taxpayers money by financing the bonds at the lowest market rate. "Oakland County's AAA bond rating enables our cities, villages and townships to fund capital projects at the lowest financial market rates," said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. "This latest AAA is the result of the county's thoughtful, long-term budgeting practices." S&P continues to award Oakland County its highest bond rating in spite of southeast Michigan's economic challenges because of the county's three-year budgeting practices and job creation and retention initiatives such as Emerging Sectors which diversify the county's economic base. The bond rating firm also gave Oakland County a stable outlook. "The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the rating will not change within a two-year horizon because we believe Oakland County will take the steps necessary to maintain its strong financial operations and reserves despite anticipated drops in taxable value," S&P said. The Oakland County Building Authority Bonds, Series 2011 will go on sale Thursday, Dec. 15. Since 1998, Oakland County taxpayers have saved millions of dollars because of the county's AAA bond rating. Published: Wed, Dec 14, 2011