The rating on Denver City and County, Colo.'s GO bonds reflects: A strong and diverse economy, Above-average wealth and income levels, Moderately low debt, and Strong financial performance. These factors are offset slightly by state constitutional limitations on revenues. The Denver Board of Water Commissioners' city GO bonds are additionally secured by water revenues. Denver serves as a services, trade, and transportation center for the greater Rocky Mountain region. Its growing metropolitan employment has strongly outperformed national trends since 1990 and is diversified among services, trade, government, and manufacturing, although services accounted for 31% of the metropolitan total in 1999. Growth has occurred particularly in services, finance, and construction. Denver's population of 507,500 is still growing, but more slowly in
