Burlington has received some good news and some bad news in regards to its credit rating.
City leaders met with representatives of Moody’s Investors Service in Chicago earlier this month.
City Manager Jim Ferneau says the city tried to show the agency that it is working to strengthen its finances by addressing accounts with negative balances and by building up its cash reserves.
The results for the city were mixed.
Ferneau says the good news is that Moody’s removed the negative outlook for the city's general obligation bonds.
He says the bad news is that the agency maintained the negative outlook for the city’s sewer revenue bonds and dropped the ratings for both types of bonds from A1 to A2.
Ferneau says this was not a complete surprise as Moody’s looks more at past audits than it does at future plans.
He says that means Burlington must stick to its five-year financial plan.
The new credit ratings mean Burlington will have to pay more in interest the next time it borrows money.
Moody’s assigned the negative outlooks to Burlington’s bonded debt in Dec. 2011.
