The three major U.S. bond-rating agencies agree that Charlotte is a well-managed economic powerhouse.
In the past two months, Fitch, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s reaffirmed the city’s AAA bond rating ahead of its move to refinance some existing debts.
S&P Global says it expects Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to “exceed state and national metrics across gross county product, total employment, population and income over the next several years.”
It projects the city “can maintain better credit characteristics than the nation in a stress scenario,” S&P said.
Fitch noted that the city’s tax-rate increase for fiscal 2024-25 was its first since 2019, and that officials were able to balance the budget without dipping into reserves.
The tax increase left Charlotteans facing a combined city-county tax burden of 74.72 cents per $100 of assessed value. That translates into a $1,494 tax bill for the owner of a $200,000 house.
In Raleigh, a home of similar value would have faced a $1,737 tax bill. Its assessment is 86.85 cents per $100. In Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, the assessment is about $1.40 per $100, according to the N.C. Department of Revenue.
Charlotte’s total general fund revenue increased 25% to $896 million between 2020 and 2025. Public safety expense made up 62% of Charlotte’s general fund spending in 2024, even as officials said the police department had more than 150 vacancies. The 2026 budget is $943.5 million, a 5% increase.
S&P noted that Charlotte’s top 10 taxpayers held about 4.2% of total taxable value of property, reflecting its diversified economy.
S&P and Moody’s cited what the latter termed the city’s “proactive management and long-range planning.” The city is “focused on quality-of-life and service delivery improvements that we believe are inducing additional private economic development and population growth,” S&P said.
Fitch and S&P sounded cautionary notes about the city’s debt burden. Fitch noted that Charlotte’s ratio of debt carrying costs to governmental expenditures was an unusually high 32.4%.
Charlotte has $1.8 billion in long-term debt, plus $1.1 billion in net pension liabilities, according to Fitch.
Still, the city’s net general fund balance of $235 million equated to 27% of spending, well above the city’s target of 15%.
The Fitch report noted that Atrium Health is Charlotte’s largest employer, with 35,700 employees, while Wells Fargo has 24,000 employees, and Bank of America, 15,000.
