Moody's Investors Service affirmed its A3 rating on the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority's $19.7 million Series 2006 resource recovery system revenue bonds.
The outlook is stable.
The Lancaster, Pa., authority, which late last year purchased the Harrisburg incinerator as part of the financial recovery plan for Pennsylvania's capital city, has an additional $107.5 million of parity debt outstanding, which Moody's does not rate.
According to an agency representative, Moody's was performing routine surveillance on the 2006 bonds.
"Moody's affirmation of their existing A3 rate on this debt is just another confirmation of the financial strength of [the authority's] system," chief executive Jim Warner said in a statement. "The rating also acknowledges the positive structure to the recent purchase of the former Harrisburg waste-to-energy plant and concludes the purchase actually increases debt service coverage for [the authority] through the maturity of the 2006 bonds."
In February 2013, Moody's had warned of a "multiple-notch rating change" should the agency buy Harrisburg's incinerator. The statement by Moody's angered Warner at the time.
The agency in December sold $130 million of bonds to finance its purchase of the Harrisburg incinerator, which it renamed the Susquehanna Resource Management Complex.
Covanta Energy operates Lancaster's home facility across from Franklin & Marshall College as well as the Harrisburg incinerator.
