{"id":364545,"date":"2026-08-06T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364545\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T18:30:08","slug":"credit-rating-agency-keeps-jacksonville-at-aa-city-seen-financially-strong-despite-pension-debt-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364545\/","title":{"rendered":"Credit rating agency keeps Jacksonville at AA+; city seen financially strong despite pension, debt risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Fitch Ratings\u2019 AA+ with a stable outlook<\/a> means Jacksonville is viewed as financially strong and likely to borrow more cheaply, though its high long\u2011term pension and debt obligations remain a risk.<\/p>\n

Fitch assigned the AA+ rating to Jacksonville\u2019s $400 million Series 2026A special revenue and refunding bonds and $53 million Series 2026B special revenue refunding bonds, and affirmed the city\u2019s issuer default rating and outstanding special revenue obligation bonds at AA+. The outlook is stable.<\/p>\n

Fitch said the rating reflects Jacksonville\u2019s very strong financial resilience, including an expectation that available reserves will remain above 10% of spending and a 2025 fund\u2011balance\u2011to\u2011expenditure ratio of about 41%. <\/p>\n

The agency cited the city\u2019s solid operating record and its role as an economic anchor for northeast Florida, and applied a one\u2011notch positive adjustment for that regional significance.<\/p>\n

The special revenue bonds are secured by a covenant requiring the city to budget and appropriate sufficient non\u2011ad valorem revenue to cover debt service; those revenues are rated on par with the issuer default rating. Fitch adjusted the city\u2019s debt metrics to reflect principal amortization through Dec. 31, 2026, and the pro forma effect of the new Series 2026 issuance.<\/p>\n

Fitch flagged weaknesses in Jacksonville\u2019s long\u2011term liability profile, calling it \u201cweak\u201d relative to peers. Key metrics cited include liabilities to personal income near 11.1%, liabilities to governmental revenue around 256.7% and carrying costs of roughly 17.0%, reflecting elevated pension liabilities and moderately rising direct debt. Revenue volatility was described as \u201cmidrange.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency said the rating could be lowered if reserves fall below 10% of general fund spending, if economic and demographic performance weakens materially, or if long\u2011term liabilities increase substantially relative to resources. A positive rating action would likely require a sustained reduction of about 15% in long\u2011term liabilities or improved economic and demographic metrics.<\/p>\n

Fitch noted its Climate.VS screener did not indicate elevated climate risk for Jacksonville and assigned an ESG relevance score of 3, meaning ESG factors are credit\u2011neutral or have only minimal credit impact. The rating action and analysis were published by Fitch Ratings.<\/p>\n

Click here to see more information on the Fitch Ratings website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Fitch Ratings\u2019 AA+ with a stable outlook means Jacksonville is viewed as financially strong and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5957,147909,116,118,117,2159],"class_list":["post-364545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-city-hall","tag-fitch-ratings","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}