Berkeley Bond Rating Jumps

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, NJ - The township's financial picture is looking up, five years after Superstorm Sandy.

Standard and Poors recently upgraded Berkeley's bond rating from an A+ to an AA bond rating, which is based on a strong budgetary performance, flexibility and strong liquidity, Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said.

"Once again we are extremely pleased that S&P has recognized the extreme effort we have made to be financially responsive to our taxpayers, despite these difficult economic times." Mayor Amato said.

It's the second time in three years that the credit rating agency increased the township's bond rating. Berkeley moved up two slots from A- to A+ back in 2015, the mayor said.

“Moving up this much in a bond rating is significant considering how the Township had to overcome a severe recession and considerable ratable losses as the township was overcoming the Super Storm Sandy devastation.”

Standard and Poor's is a credit rating agency that issues credit ratings for public and private company debt and public borrowers like governments and governmental agencies.

Some of the reasons for the rating upgrade include:

A strong budgetary performance in the general fund, the township's low "debt to borrow" ratio, and the township's overall net debt, which is less that 3 percent of market value. Roughly 76.5 percent of the township's debt service will be retired in 10 years, the mayor said.

The gross debt in percentage which can be borrowed is 3.50 percent of the 3-year average assessed valuation of $5.1 Billion. The net debt in percentage which has been borrowed is only .95 percent of the 3-year average assessed valuation. The remaining borrowing capacity at the end of 2017 was $138 million.

"We will continue our conservative budget practices in our ongoing effort to improve our finances and find more ways to save taxpayers money," Amato said. "I want to thank our administrative staff, especially our CFO Fred Ebenau, for his efforts in leading our treasury department during these difficult financial times along with Councilman John Bacchione, chairman of the finance committee, for his work and input as well," Amato said.

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