Perrysburg credit score bumped up

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PERRYSBURG – Don’t expect a sudden windfall
or a tax reduction, but a bump in the city’s credit rating announced last week has officials counting their
financial blessings.Perrysburg’s long- and short-term credit ratings, established by Standard &
Poor’s as AA- in 2008, were boosted to AA+, a two-step increase Administrator Bridgette Kabat called
"unbelievable" at last week’s city council meeting."In 18 years (working) in the public, I
have never been in an entity that’s experienced a jump like that. It’s usually a big struggle to
upgrade," she later said in an interview.The ratings agency’s analysis indicates that in the past few
years, the city has reduced its debt, built a reserve fund and maintained policies and practices that limit
financial risks."The stable outlook reflects our view of the city’s consistent financial performance
and underlying economy benefiting from strong management," Standard & Poor’s stated in a
summary of the adjustment."That’s a real testament to the council and administration we’ve had in place
here for a number of years," Kabat added. "They’ve held strong convictions on budgeting practices
and putting away funds for a reserve fund."The benefits are difficult to quantify, but Kabat said a
financial adviser indicated the two-step rating increase could be worth a better interest rate of up to .25
percent when issuing future debt. The appearance of more financial security could also make Perrysburg more
marketable to prospective businesses."That’s one of the things companies look at," said Dave
Creps, the city’s finance director.A big part of the rating increase is the result of an effort to pay off
the city’s general fund debt, according to Creps. Before a targeted effort to pay it off, debt was listed at
$5.14 million in 2009. That money was used to construct buildings, improve parks and make other
infrastructure upgrades over time. Payments reduced the debt to $3.35 million the next year and eliminated
the obligations by the end of 2011.The next step was to begin placing money in a "rainy day fund,"
so officials for several years funded it with 5 percent of the previous year’s expenditures, the maximum
amount allowed by Ohio Revised Code, Creps said.That fund now stands at about $1.7 million, and while
nothing has yet been budgeted for 2014, Creps said he’s "cautiously optimistic" that the maximum
funds, or about $900,000, can be squirreled away again."Over the past five years, we’ve gone from a
position of having a bunch of debt on the books to having no debt and having a reserve balance," Creps
said. "Ratings companies like to see that."

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