After an assessment by Moody’s Investor Services, the city of Starkville’s bond rating remains the same.
Following the assessment, the city’s rating is still an A1, which signifies strong creditworthiness. Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk said the city was planning to sell bonds to pay for upcoming road and infrastructure work in the next few weeks.
“The higher your bond rating, the more favorable prices are from the city’s perspective,” Sistrunk said. “
She said the city’s A1 rating was good, but not the best rating a city could receive.
“It is a good rating, and it’s a particularly good rating for a community in Mississippi,” Sistrunk said.
She said being accountable to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 68 has hampered communities in Mississippi as far as receiving higher bond ratings. The statement is an accounting standard requiring municipalities’ unfunded pension liabilities including the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) to be reported.
“Although we pay quite a bit and we pay what thy ask, the state has not taken the steps that are going to have those pension liabilities funded at a rate that we feel is sufficient,” Sistrunk said. “That’s just something that factors into the overall setting of the rates of every city in the state.”
Sistrunk also named the city’s stability, property values and growing sales tax numbers as factors keeping the city’s rating where it is.
“They recognize that Starkville is a solid investment, and as a result we’ve maintained that credit rating,” Sistrunk said.
She said the rating was determined following the city submitting several documents to Moody’s. Moody’s then reviewed the documents and called the city to discuss the community and items in the documents in depth.
“They will ask us to walk through some of the information,” Sistrunk said. “They will ask us about specific items that they have seen, and it’s our job to provide them accurate information.”
She said the work would mainly entail refurbishing heavily used roads in the city. With the weather warming up, she said the city hopes to start the construction soon. The work will be in accordance with the city’s capital improvements plan.
“Hopefully, we’ll be requesting bids for those processes soon,” Sistrunk said.
Sistrunk also acknowledged the group effort it took to keep the rating, citing the current board of aldermen, city staff and Mayor Lynn Spruill.
“It’s been a great team, and I think our rating is reflective of that team. I am very excited to be getting started on some work here in the city of Starkville that needs to be done, and it’s just an ongoing part of having a city. You’re forever having to do these sorts of things.”