S&P Affirms Newburyport's AAA Credit Rating

S&P Global Ratings affirmed the City of Newburyport's 'AAA' long-term credit rating on March 27, 2019.  From the rating agency:

"The long-term rating reflects our view of the city's:
• 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;
• Strong budgetary performance, with a slight operating surplus in the general fund and an operating surplus at the total governmental fund level in fiscal 2018;
• Strong budgetary flexibility, with an available fund balance in fiscal 2018 of 10.2% of operating expenditures;
• Very strong liquidity, with total government available cash at 24.8% of total governmental fund expenditures and 4.5x governmental debt service, and access to external liquidity we consider strong;
• Strong debt and contingent liability position, with debt service carrying charges at 5.5% of expenditures and net direct debt that is 107.3% of total governmental fund revenue, as well as low overall net debt at less than 3% of market value; and
• Strong institutional framework score."

A full copy of the report is attached.