Summary: Westfield, Massachusetts; General Obligation; Note

S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'SP-1+' short-term rating to Westfield, Mass.' series 2018 general obligation (GO) bond anticipation notes (BANs), maturing on Oct. 31, 2019, and affirmed its 'SP-1+' short-term rating on the city's existing BANs and 'AA' long-term rating, with a stable outlook, on the city's existing GO bonds. The short-term rating reflects our view that the city will likely maintain a very strong ability to pay principal and interest when the BANs come due. In our opinion, Westfield sustains a low market-risk profile as it maintains strong legal authority to issue long-term debt to take out the BANs. In addition, the city is a frequent issuer that regularly provides ongoing disclosure to the market The city's full-faith-and-credit pledge,

...S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'SP-1+' short-term rating to Westfield, Mass.' series 2018 general obligation (GO) bond anticipation notes (BANs), maturing on Oct. 31, 2019, and affirmed its 'SP-1+' short-term rating on the city's existing BANs and '##' long-term rating, with a stable outlook, on the city's existing GO bonds. The short-term rating reflects our view that the city will likely maintain a very strong ability to pay principal and interest when the BANs come due. In our opinion, Westfield sustains a low market-risk profile as it maintains strong legal authority to issue long-term debt to take out the BANs. In addition, the city is a frequent issuer that regularly provides ongoing disclosure to the market The city's full-faith-and-credit pledge, subject to Proposition 2-1/2 limitations, secures the GO debt. Despite commonwealth levy-limit-law limitations, we did not make a rating distinction between Westfield's limited-tax-GO pledge and general creditworthiness because our analysis...

Summary