September 19, 2011 (Omaha, NE)— Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle and City Finance Director, Pam Spaccarotella, are in Chicago today trying to preserve the City’s Aaa bond rating. “We will be making our case for this city to save its Aaa bond rating, in spite of the federal government’s downgrades,” said Mayor Suttle.
The City of Omaha’s Finance Department was notified August 4th that Moody’s Investors Services assigned a negative outlook to the City of Omaha’s Aaa rated General Obligation bonds. “This notification was a result of Moody’s announcement on August 2nd that the Aaa rating of the U.S. government had been assigned a negative outlook,”said Finance Director, Pam Spaccarotella.
“Bond rating companies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poors look at several aspects of how a city manages its finances in determining a city’s credit rating, very much like how your personal credit score is determined,” said Pam Spaccarotella.
“Despite the bumps and setbacks that go along with a troubled economy, we believe we have a good story to tell,” said Mayor Jim Suttle. “We have continued to cut spending in city government through performance based budgeting, balanced our budget in spite of millions of dollars of cuts in aid from the state and federal government. This year we continued to create efficiencies that greatly improve the administration of vital city services to our citizens, without tax increases and even established a plan for building financial reserves. These accomplishments demonstrate that we have the political will to plan for the future while rising above the dependence of outside assistance to keep our community solvent.”
The results of today’s meetings with Moody’s and Standard and Poors should be announced on Friday of this week or early next week.
Weekly Address by Mayor Jim Suttle September 19, 2011
