Fitch Ratings Upgrades Rockland Bonds to “A” Rating

New City, NY, – County Executive Ed Day and Commissioner of Finance Stephen DeGroat announced today that Fitch Ratings upgraded the County’s General Obligation Bond Rating from “A-” to “A.” This is the tenth consecutive bond upgrade since 2014, when Rockland’s bonds were rated just above junk and the county had a $138 million deficit. These upgraded ratings mean that when Rockland borrows money to fund capital projects they can do so at a lower cost; saving taxpayer dollars.

“This upgrade shows that the difficult choices we made in the past are being noticed and paying dividends for our residents,” said County Executive Day. “I vowed to restore Rockland to a position of fiscal responsibility and strength; through conservative budgeting and strict fiscal discipline we are making progress.”

This rating increase comes on the heels of the release of the 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that showed a positive unassigned fund balance or surplus of $32.2 million in the County’s General Fund.

The rating report gave Rockland a positive outlook writing, “the upgrade to ‘A’ from ‘A-‘ is reflective of the county’s improved financial resilience following consecutive years of surplus resulting from gradual increases to revenues and the implementation of various operational improvements to minimize expenditure growth over time.”

County Executive Day credited County employees for the financial turnaround, “I did not do this on my own and thank them for their new ideas, process improvements and dedication. We have accomplished so much together, so quickly; we have brought Rockland back from the brink and are now poised to move into the bright future residents deserve.”

  bond rating, ed day, fitch ratings, Stephen DeGroat