Agenda - Council - 06/26/2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Summary: Ramsey, Minnesota; General Obligation Credit Profile US$1.21 mil GO str reconstruction buds ser 2018A dtd 06/ 19/2018 due 12/15/2028 Long Term Rating AA+/Stable Ramsey GO Long Term Rating Rationale AA+/Stable New Affirmed S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AA+' long-term rating to Ramsey, Minn.'s series 2018A general obligation (GO) street reconstruction bonds. At the same time, we affirmed our'AA+' rating on the city's existing GO bonds. The outlook is stable. The city's GO unlimited property tax pledge secures the bonds. Debt service on the bonds will also be paid by special assessments, but we rate to the GO pledge, which we view as the stronger security. Proceeds from the 2018A bonds will be used for street reconstruction and overlay projects. The rating reflects our view of the city's: • Strong economy, with access to a broad and diverse metropolitan statistical area (MSA); • Strong management, with "good" financial policies and practices under our Financial Management Assessment (FMA) methodology; • 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 72% of operating expenditures; • Very strong liquidity, with total government available cash at 3.9x total governmental fund expenditures and 22.4x governmental debt service, and access to external liquidity we consider strong; • Adequate debt and contingent liability position, with debt service carrying charges at 17.6% of expenditures and net direct debt that is 156.8% of total governmental fund revenue, as well as low overall net debt at less than 3% of market value and rapid amortization, with 74.1% of debt scheduled to be retired in 10 years; and • Strong institutional framework score. Strong economy We consider Ramsey's economy strong. The city, with an estimated population of 26,120, is in Anoka County about 28 miles north of Minneapolis. It is in the Minneapolis -St. Paul -Bloomington MSA, which we consider to be broad and diverse. The city has a projected per capita effective buying income of 112% of the national level and per capita market value of $92,012. Overall, market value grew by 5.8% over the past year to $2.4 billion in 2017. The county unemployment rate was 3.3% in 2017. WWW.STANDARDANDPOORS.COM/RATINGSDIRECT JUNE 21, 2018 2