READING, Pa. – The Berks County Commissioners announced on Thursday the county was informed this week that its Aaa bond rating was reaffirmed with Moody’s Ratings.
The county has had an Aaa rating since 2019.
Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach congratulated the budget team under the leadership of Chief Financial Officer Laura Jones.
“This is the first time in her new role as CFO that she has had to defend our Aaa bond rating,” Leinbach said. “I will reiterate; we’re one of only 5% of counties in the Commonwealth and 5% of counties in the country with that bond rating. It says a lot about the fiscal management of the county.”
Moody’s Ratings is the credit ratings division of Moody’s Corporation and provides international financial research on bonds issued by commercial and government entities.
The company ranks the creditworthiness of borrowers using a standardized ratings scale which measures expected investor loss.
In Moody’s ratings system, securities are assigned a rating from Aaa to C, with Aaa bring the highest quality.
Last week the commissioners adopted an ordinance to incur up to $40 million in new debt through the issuance of general obligation bonds for various capital improvement projects.
The Aaa rating ensure those bonds will be issued with the best possible interest rates.