County's credit ratings reaffirmed

Moody's and Standard & Poor, a couple of nationally recognized credit rating agencies, affirmed Knox County’s strong bond ratings of Aa1 and AA+, respectively, according to a spin release issued about an hour ago while I was at lunch by Big "Michael Grider" Sexy.

Here's what he had to add: "Citing Knox County’s 'historical maintenance of strong finances,' S&P went a step further by upgrading Knox County’s financial outlook from stable to positive.  This indicates that Knox County is approaching a AAA rating." 

He also said that Moody's cited the county's "strong financial position and reserves, improved liquidity, sizable revenue base and manageable debt burden as factors in their rating decision."

A number of county leaders, including Mayor Tim Burchett, noted that the county's efforts to pay down debt . . . blah, blah, blah as reasons for the awesome ratings.

No one mentioned that the main reason is because we've got like the super-cheapest property tax rate in the world, which provides a cushion in case stuff goes bad. In other words, if we're in trouble, we can jack up taxes without bankrupting residents. That's key to bond rating agencies.

Yeah, the other stuff helps, too. But not like this.

Still, this is good news, since it means lower interest rates when the school system needs to borrow money. Heh.