Fitch Downgrades $235.1MM Michigan School Bonds to 'AA-'.CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. downgrades to 'AA-' from 'AA' the ratings of approximately $235.1 million outstanding school district bonds qualified for participation in the Michigan School Bond Loan Fund Program '. This rating action is in connection with the recent downgrade Downgrade A negative change in the rating of a security. Notes: For example, an analyst may downgrade a stock from strong buy to buy, or a bond rating agency may downgrade a bond from AAA to AA. of Michigan's general obligation bonds (for more information, see Fitch fitch: see polecat. Research on 'Fitch Lowers Michigan's $1.6B GOs to 'AA-", dated January 26, 2007). The 'AA-' rating on the school districts' bonds reflects Michigan's constitutional and statutory requirements to lend debt service payment funds to school districts that would otherwise default on their qualified general obligation (GO) bonds for any reason. The state constitution prohibits impairment Impairment 1. A reduction in a company's stated capital. 2. The total capital that is less than the par value of the company's capital stock. Notes: 1. This is usually reduced because of poorly estimated losses or gains. 2. , and the state may issue notes or bonds without voter VOTER. One entitled to a vote; an elector. approval for the purpose of making loans to school districts. Fitch assigns program and underlying ratings upon request. In some cases, the bonds also are insured. Insured and underlying ratings are unaffected by this action. Accordingly, applicable ratings of the following school district bond issues qualified for the program are downgraded to 'AA-' from 'AA': --Baldwin Community Schools, MI GO unlimited tax school building and site bonds, series 1998; --Beaverton Rural Schools, MI 1996 GO unlimited tax school building and site bonds; --Capac Community Schools, MI GO school building and site unlimited tax GO bonds, series 1997; --Cass City Public Schools, MI 1996 GO unlimited tax school building and site bonds; --Detroit School District, MI GO unlimited school building and site improvement bonds, series 2001A; --Lamphere Schools, MI GO unlimited tax school building and site bonds, series 1997; --Pellston Public Schools, MI 1998 GO unlimited tax refunding Tax refund Money back from the government when too much tax has been paid or withheld from a salary. bonds; --Rapid River Schools, MI GO unlimited tax school building and site bonds, series 1999; --White Pine School District, MI GO unlimited tax school building and site bonds, series 2000. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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