Simpsonville's Bond Rating Upgraded

Standard & Poor’s Rating Services has raised the bond rating for the City of Simpsonville to AA with a stable outlook, from AA-, city officials announced.

The upgrade reflects Standard & Poor’s assessment of what it considers the “city’s strong financial performance due, in part to, what we regard as, conservative budgeting practices, as well as strong financial policies and practices that have helped increase unassigned general fund reserves to, in our opinion, very strong levels.”

The upgrade is good news for the city, as it boosts the city's creditworthiness. That creditworthiness will pay dividends as the city faces major capital projects in coming years, such as sewer projects and possibly a new law enforcement, court and fire headquarters.

Bond ratings are used by potential lenders to determine entities' credit-worthiness. They also are a major factor in determining interest rates charged on bonds. For residents, a strong bond rating means their municipality is likely to get a lower interest rate, which reduces the cost of borrowing funds for projects.

“The City of Simpsonville prides itself on fiscal conservancy while providing a high standard of service to our residents,” city administrator  Russ Hawes said in a statement. “This improvement in rating reflects that.”

Standard & Poor’s also noted Simpsonville’s good income and wealth, location, low direct debt and very strong general fund reserves as reasons for the upgrade. In addition, Standard & Poor’s noted "three straight years of operating surpluses," and does not expect the rating to change for at least two years because of a strong balance of reserves and operational funding.