With this rating, along with the city’s rating of “AAA” by Standard & Poor’s, the City of Richardson has the highest ratings assigned by both rating agencies.
During the city’s last rating check, the Standard & Poor’s rating agency reported Richardson as being one of only 14 cities in Texas’ 1,208 communities (and one of only 169 cities in the nation’s 18,500 cities) with a AAA bond rating. High level bond ratings mean the city and its taxpayers benefit from the lowest available interest rates on debt issuances, which will help if voters approve a $66 million bond package next month.
Similarly, Moody’s Investor Services has repeatedly noted the positive influence of the city’s long-tenured, stable management team in contributing to the city’s fiscal success.
Richardson has been working on diversifying its economy for years. The city successfully weathered the telecom downturn a decade ago and has strategically diversified its economic development strategy since then. The community has relatively strong sales tax figures, has not had to raise taxes to balance the budget and has maintained consistently strong fiscal ratings from outside examiners.
This is the second round of good economic news in Richardson in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Richardson’s sales tax numbers went from red to black for the first time in more than a year. Year-to-date sales tax collections are up 6.4% compared to last year, and “base to base” collections are up .1% during the same time period.