Firm Financial Footing

Way back on July 28, 2014, with our bond rating just above junk status and after years of downgrades and financial problems for Rockland County we received our first upgrade of one notch to Baa2 from Baa3 from Moody’s Investors Services. It was a momentous day as it marked the first serious acknowledgment of the financial turnaround that we were beginning.

And what a huge difference seven more years of hard work has made. This month we received two more upgrades from both Moody’s which bumped us two notches to Aa2 from A1 and S&P Global Ratings which bumped us two notches to AA from A+.

Receiving double upgrades from both these organizations is truly incredible and speaks to the actions we’ve taken these last seven years and the last year in particular when we acted quickly to protect Rockland’s fiscal health.

As part of the rationale for the rating increase, S&P Global Ratings wrote, “In response to sales tax declines stemming from stay-at-home orders, the county implemented a hiring freeze, eliminated vacant personnel positions, and limited departmental spending to COVID-19 related costs, resulting in sizable expenditure reductions. Overall, these actions are resulting in strong budgetary performance as revenues are exceeding expectations in 2021 amid the economic recovery.”

S&P Global Ratings also highlighted our record of conservative budgeting practices and bi-partisan budgetary oversite, “Furthermore, the county legislature, county executive, state budget director, and chairs of the Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees review quarterly budget-to-actual reports. Rockland County also provides a three-year financial plan to the state comptroller annually.”

This upgrade marks well over a dozen consecutive bond and credit rating upgrades since July of 2014. But I have not done this alone and need to extend my thanks and acknowledgement to everyone here in County government who has worked to improve our financial standing, from our employees to the Republicans and Democrats in the County Legislature.

While it’s clear that we have changed County government for the better, the main takeaway I want to convey to you about these upgrades is that more than 7 years later, we are still working to save taxpayer dollars. This is your money, and we will keep working to protect it while investing in a bright and sustainable future.