SWAMPSCOTT — The town has received an AA Plus bond rating from the Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings system.
“This is a feather in the cap,” said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “It shows we are making fiscally responsible decisions and that we are a good risk for bonds.”
A bond rating for a Massachusettts municipality is a forward-looking opinion about the creditworthiness of the municipality with respect to its financial obligation and its ability to pay back its debt.
The higher the rating, the better the creditworthiness. The highest rating a municipality can receive is a AAA rating.
“We are almost there on getting that AAA rating; there is just more work to be done,” Fitzgerald said. “Still, an AA Plus bond rating is amazing. I want to make that clear. We do want to keep going on getting the AAA bond rating.”
Fitzgerald said the AA Plus bond rating comes at a crucial period for Swampscott, as the town is considering trying to pay for the twin elementary schools (grades K-2 and 3-4, respectively) in a shared building at the Stanley School site. The project was approved by voters in October of 2021.
Letting a bond to pay for the schools is the plan and because of the AA Plus rating bestowed upon the town, sellers of bonds will see Swampscott as a trustworthy, low-risk bond buyer able to pay off its debts.
The town is considering using the reserves to help pay for a bond in order to ease any tax burdens on residents.
Fitzgerald credits the town being able to have this reserve of money due to less local government spending and a lowering of taxes. He said that for several years, Swampscott would spend money on several local government items and it needed to change in order to achieve what he called a, “stable, economically-sound position.”
“Back then, we would have a lot of spending,” he said. “We eased up on that and focused on saving our reserves which led us to a more financially-sound place. I really think this is a huge testament to our accomplishments in Swampscott.”
