Middletown bond rating remains high Mayor credits sound financial management BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - When it comes to bond ratings in Middletown, the township receives straight A's. Double A's to be exact. Standard & Poor's has reaffirmed Middletown Township's bond rating of AA, with an outlook listed as stable. The Standard and Poor's assessment of Middletown's finances found that Middletown has a sound financial position, a strong tax-collection rate and rapid, timely payment of debt service. Standard and Poor's is a division of the McGraw-Hill Cos. and publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. In addition, the township's tax base growth has been steady with a 2006 assessed value of all taxable property at $4.9 billion, representing a 2 percent increase since 2003. Middletown Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger was very happy with the rating. "It's just fantastic and I'm thrilled," Scharfenberger said. "It's a reflection of a sound financial government." In Standard & Poor's yearly evaluation, ratings range from D, the lowest, to the highest, AAA. Bonds that are rated AA are considered to be "of high quality." A AA rating differs from the highest rated obligations only in that the bonders' capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligations is very strong. "I consider our town to bond very little, and to receive a high quality rating like that says a lot," Scharfenberger said. "We are paying more debt than we are incurring, so overall we are doing a nice job." Scharfenberger said that some of the ways Middletown has looked to reduce spending include reducing the municipal work force from 397 in 1988 to 345 employees in 2006. Also the township has been streamlining jobs through technology and has been participating in interlocal agreements with other township entities and neighboring municipalities. Scharfenberger attributes the rating to the fact that the township has been defraying project costs with grant monies, refinancing existing municipal bonds to take advantage of lower interest rates and purchasing needed equipment through cost-saving lease agreements with the Monmouth County Improvement Authority. Standard and Poor's is the second corporation to hand out a AA to Middletown with Moody's doing the same earlier in the year. The bond rating is something that Scharfenberger is proud of and looks to continue keeping the rating high. "Our finances seem to be on the right track," Scharfenberger said. "Top to bottom in our government, we have done a nice job."