Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'AAA' rating to the Monmouth County Improvement Authority, N.J.'s series 2016 county-guaranteed pooled governmental pooled loan refunding revenue bonds, supported by Monmouth County. We also affirmed our 'AAA' rating on the county's existing appropriation and general obligation (GO) debt. The outlook is stable. Monmouth County's GO bonds are eligible to be rated above the sovereign because we believe the county can maintain better credit characteristics than the U.S. in a stress scenario. Under our criteria "Ratings Above The Sovereign: Corporate And Government Ratings—Methodology And Assumptions," the county has a predominately locally derived revenue source, with over 50% of governmental activity revenue derived from property taxes with independent taxing authority and independent treasury management
