Goochland receives AAA Standard & Poor’s bond rating

The press release below details the latest accomplishment of Goochland County government; there will be more.
Please visit the county website www.co.goochland.va.us to view the wonderful video about Goochland that was included in the material submitted to Standard & Poor’s.

Susan F. Lascolette, Chair, District 1
Manuel Alvarez, Jr., District 2
Ned S. Creasey, District 3
Robert H. Minnick, Vice-Chair, District 4
Ken C. Peterson, District 5

Goochland County Becomes Only Small County in Virginia with AAA Rating
Goochland County – On Friday, February 6, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P) assigned the highest credit rating possible of AAA to Goochland County. In receiving the AAA rating in its first-ever attempt, Goochland also becomes the only small county in Virginia to be rated AAA by S&P, as currently no other county with a population under 60,000 is designated AAA. By comparison, Goochland County’s current population is estimated at 21,400.
Ken Peterson, Goochland County Board of Supervisors, Becky Dickson, County Administrator and John Wack, Deputy County Administrator, along with Kevin Rotty of PFM, the County’s financial advisor, traveled to Wall Street on January 12th to tell Goochland County’s story. During a three hour due diligence session with S&P, county officials highlighted Goochland’s strengths in management and leadership, the local economy, planned growth, strategic planning, and most importantly in financial management, including strength in the areas of budgetary performance and financial flexibility and liquidity.
Ken Peterson, Board of Supervisors representative from District 5, was pleased with the outcome: "We are thrilled that S&P has awarded its highest rating to Goochland County. The S&P AAA credit rating serves as an affirmation and validation of the County's financial health. Goochland will benefit from this rating in many ways, including an enhanced ability to attract and retain businesses, improved access to the capital markets on very favorable terms, and it will provide a transparent metric for citizens to track the financial health of their County.” County Administrator Rebecca Dickson stated: “The citizens of Goochland are fortunate to have a financially conservative Board of Supervisors that serves as exceptional stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars, not only strengthening the county’s financial policies over the last two years but strictly adhering to those policies. In addition, the Board is very proactive, building up reserves to provide budget flexibility for the future and taking a cautious approach to recurring spending commitments. Goochland County has earned this outstanding rating,” John Wack, Deputy County Administrator for Financial Services, added: “This top rating is the culmination of over five years of steady progress in prudent financial management.”
S&P concludes its assessment as follows: “The stable outlook reflects our view of the county’s very strong management conditions that, in our view, have contributed to its very strong financial position and consistently strong financial performance. For these reasons, we do not expect to change the rating within the two-year outlook horizon.”
1800 Sandy Hook Road
P. O. Box 10, Goochland, VA 23063
(804) 556-5800 ● (804) 556-4617 Fax ● (TDD 711 (Virginia Relay))
Email: countyadmin@co.goochland.va.us