Marquette Bond Rating Bumps Up

The national economy, and the Michigan economy, are making life difficult for city and township governments.

But there’s a sign that at least one area city is doing a good job of weathering the storm.

Standard and Poor’s has just improved Marquette’s bond rating to ‘AA’ status.

That’s the second–best rating possible.

It means the city should be able to withstand economic changes without major problems.

And it’ll save the city money whenever it needs to borrow.

City chief financial officer Gary Simpson says there’s no way to know just how much money this will save.

But the bond rating improvement amounts to 50 status points.

That’s about half a percentage point on an interest rate, which can save thousands of dollars over the 20-year span of a bond issue.

All over Michigan, and across the country, bond ratings for cities have been falling the last few years.