Budget Prudence Aids Bridgewater, Mass.

A multi-year pattern of balanced budgets helped Bridgewater, Mass., regain its credibility in the capital markets.

The 25,000-population town in southeastern Massachusetts between Boston and Providence, R.I., received a positive outlook on its A2 rating from Moody's Investors Service.

In 2009, Bridgewater was three notches lower, at Baa2.

Moody's issued the report in advance of a $5.6 million sale of Series 2014 general obligation municipal purpose loan bonds. According to Moody's, the town has $17.5 million in rated long-term debt.

The positive outlook, said Moody's, reflects the town's significantly improved financial position following a period of tight liquidity in prior years. The rating company said it would hinge future reviews on the town's ability to maintain structural balance and augment reserve levels.

"We are still seeing some U.S. local governments struggle to balance revenues and spending activity, five years removed from the Great Recession," Janney Capital Markets said in an April 7 report. "There are some locals, however, that have been able to make the difficult choices to rein in spending and raise revenues as needed to structurally balance their budgets. One such example is [Bridgewater]."

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