Fitch Ratings last week removed the negative rating watch on $99 million of revenue bonds that financed public improvement projects in Bossier City. The outlook is now stable.
The debt was issued in 2007 by the Louisiana Government Environmental Facilities and Community Development Authority. The 2007 bonds are rated A-plus by Fitch and Standard & Poor’s and A2 by Moody’s Investors Service. The debt is supported by annual appropriations by the city from a broadly defined range of available funds.
Fitch assigned a AA-minus implied general obligation rating to Bossier City with the move to a stable outlook
The watch outlook was raised because the city’s fiscal operations improved in fiscal 2010 after three consecutive years of operating deficits, Fitch said, and there are prospects for another small surplus in fiscal 2011. The city’s largest revenue source is the sales tax, which provides 32% of total general fund revenues. Property taxes contribute 23% of the total.
The unemployment rate in the city of 60,000 was 5.5% in December, below the state average of 7.2% and the national average of 9.1%.
