The residents of New Hanover County will benefit from the lowest-possible interest cost on the bonds to be issued for Cape Fear Community College and for county schools facilities, thanks to a continued top bond rating the county has earned.

County officials, in a news release Wednesday afternoon, announced that New Hanover has again received a AAA bond rating from both Moody’s Investor Services and Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. This is the highest rating a county can receive.

“We’re getting the best interest rate in the market,” county finance director Lisa Wurtzbacher said Thursday. “If [the rating services] had not reaffirmed but instead downgraded our rating, we could have expected higher interest costs.”

Those costs could have been about $230,000 higher over the 20-year life of the debt, according to the county’s estimates, Wurtzbacher added.

Ratings agencies review counties’ status annually and again before a county bond issue, she said.

“Investors want to know what the rating is,” Wurtzbacher said.

New Hanover County is going to the bond market to fund improvements to the local K-12 schools, in a bond referendum approved by voters in 2014. It will also sell $40 million worth of bonds to finance the third and final phase of CFCC facilities improvements: construction of a new Advanced and Emerging Technologies facility at the college’s North Campus and renovation of four existing instructional buildings at its Downtown Campus.

Those CFCC bonds represent the balance of a $164 million bond issue approved in 2008 by 62 percent of county voters to upgrade the college’s facilities. The $40 million issue was approved in January by the county’s board of commissioners.

The county has been rated AAA by Moody’s since 2010 and by S&P since 2013, according to the release, which stated, “To be rated triple A by both Moody’s and S&P is a rare and distinguished position to be in. New Hanover County is joined by only six other counties in North Carolina, and approximately 80 of the nation’s 3,069 counties. As a double triple-A rated county, New Hanover County is rated in the top three percent of all counties across the country.” 

Wurtzbacher said that the county’s high rating results from a combination of its financial management practices and budgetary management practices, plus a local economy that is “thriving and growing.” Because rating agencies want evidence of a robust, year-round economy, the finance director said that county officials stressed New Hanover County’s diverse tax base and diverse set of employers.

“We’re not just a tourist town; we have a lot to offer full-time residents in terms of employment,” she said.

County manager Chris Coudriet, quoted in the news release, affirmed the policies and procedures that have helped New Hanover achieve and maintain the top ratings.  

“The county taxpayers have every reason to have confidence in the efficacy of its county government,” he said. “Being double triple-A rated did not happen by chance or luck. It’s a testament to strong, thoughtful leadership from the top by the board of commissioners, and it’s reflective of a highly capable and professional staff that offer sound policy options to the board with the long view in mind. New Hanover County, by any measure, is a safe, healthy, and secure community, and it also reflects a smart investment.”