Fitch Ratings affirmed Prince George’s County’s AAA credit rating ahead of the County’s upcoming competitive bond sale. The rating keeps borrowing costs low for capital projects and reflects the County’s sound fiscal policies, prudent long-range planning, and economic stability.
Fitch Ratings has assigned a AAA rating to the following Prince George’s County general obligation (GO) bonds:
- $183,165,000 GO consolidated public improvement bonds series 2024A
- $98,390,000 GO consolidated public improvement refunding bonds series 2024B
The GOs are backed by the County’s full faith and credit and limited taxing authority. The county charter limits the real property tax rate to $0.96 per $100 of assessed value and further requires that certain taxes and fees may not increase without voter approval.
The County will sell the bonds via competitive sale on June 4, 2024. Bond proceeds will fund various capital projects and refund the series 2014A bonds.
In addition, Fitch has affirmed the following ratings:
- Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at AAA
- GO bonds at AAA
The Rating Outlook is Stable.
According to the Fitch Ratings analysis:
The ‘AAA’ IDR and GO rating reflects the county’s historically strong operating performance supporting its ‘aaa’ financial resilience assessment. The ‘aaa’ assessment reflects a ‘high midrange’ level of budgetary flexibility and Fitch’s expectation that reserves will be maintained at or above 10% of spending (compared to the current 33%).
