CC PACKET 04272010 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Summary: St. Anthony, Minnesota; General Obligation $2,000. The city does not currently receive local government aid or an MHVC. For fiscal 2009, it showed an unaudited general fund surplus of $85,000. For fiscal 2010, city officials anticipate showing at least a breakeven result in the general fund. Like many Minnesota municipalities, St. Anthony operates a liquor store, which currently holds unrestricted net assets of $443,000. Profits from the store are annually transferred into the general fund to supplement revenue. St. Anthony's management practices are considered "good" under Standard & Poor's Financial Management Assessment (FMA). An FMA of good indicates that practices exist in most areas, but not all may be formalized or regularly monitored by governance officials. The city engages in extensive financial planning, including maintaining a document that projects the city's capital and operating needs over a 20 -year span. The city council uses this tool, along with several detailed capital improvement plans that cover equipment needs, building improvements, roads, and the water/sewer system, to aid the yearly budgeting and goal -setting process. In our opinion, the city's overall debt burden is high on a per capita basis at $5,729, but only moderate when considered as a percentage of market value at 5.4%. The carrying charges, or debt expenditures as a fraction of governmental costs minus capital outlay, are elevated at 28%. Balancing these high annual debt costs is rapid amortization of the bonds --68% of the city's debt outstanding is due to be retired within 10 years. We understand that management plans to issue annual road reconstruction bonds of approximately $1.5 million in 2011. Outlook The stable outlook reflects our expectation that St. Anthony will continue to engage in financial planning, particularly as it faces future cuts in state aid, in order to preserve its good reserve levels in line with council policy. Participation in the deep and diverse Minneapolis -St. Paul economic base further supports the rating. Related Criteria And Research USPF Criteria: GO Debt, Oct. 12, 2006 Complete ratings information is available to RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal subscribers at www.globalcreditportal.com and RatingsDirect subscribers at www.ratingsdirect.com, All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com. Use the Ratings search box located in the left column. wvuuv.sta+rdardandpours.com/ratingsdi rest 70,2045 13001330603 34