Fitch Rates the IDA of Arlington County, VA's $61.99M Lease Revs 'AA+'.WASHINGTON -- 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. assigns an 'AA+' rating to the Industrial Development Authority of Arlington County, VA's $61.99 million lease revenue bonds (Arlington County, VA Capital Projects), series 2004. The bonds are scheduled for sale via negotiation in mid-July with Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. as lead underwriter Lead underwriter The head of a syndicate of financial firms that are sponsoring an initial public offering of securities or a secondary offering of securities. Could also apply to bond issues. . The Rating Outlook is Stable. The 'AA+' rating on the series 2004 lease revenue bonds reflects the sound lease provisions and essentiality of the leased assets, as well as Arlington County's strong underlying credit quality. The county's general obligation debt, rated 'AAA' (affirmed af·firm v. af·firmed, af·firm·ing, af·firms v.tr. 1. To declare positively or firmly; maintain to be true. 2. To support or uphold the validity of; confirm. v.intr. by Fitch Ratings on April 26, 2004), continues to achieve the highest level of credit quality due to its deep and diverse economy, strong financial management, moderate and rapidly retired debt burden, and manageable capital needs. Proceeds of the bonds will be used for four separate projects (financing projects). The financing projects include renovations and improvements at the county's Trades Center; improvements to the Emergency Communication Center (ECC (1) (Error-Correcting Code) A type of memory that corrects errors on the fly. See ECC memory. (2) (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) A public key cryptography method that provides fast decryption and digital signature processing. ) and upgrades to public safety radio equipment; renovation of the George Mason Center; and the purchase and installation of the enterprise resource planning See ERP. (application, business) Enterprise Resource Planning - (ERP) Any software system designed to support and automate the business processes of medium and large businesses. software and equipment that will replace the current systems supporting human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. and finance functions. The county entered into a lease-lease back arrangement with the Industrial Development Authority of Arlington County (the IDA Ida (ē`dä), city (1990 pop. 91,859), Nagano prefecture, central Honshu, Japan, on the Tenryu River. It is an agricultural market and railway junction. ), whereas the county leased the leased projects to the authority for a period of 25 years. Not all of the projects financed with this offering are included as collateral; total collateral is estimated at $49.1 million, or 79% of the total cost of the projects financed. The leased projects include the portion of the county's court and police facility that will house the relocation of the ECC and improvements to the Trades Center including a warehouse, vehicle maintenance facility, equipment storage facility, and parking deck. The authority will issue the bonds and lease the leased projects back to the county for 20 years, in exchange for lease rental payments paid by the county, which are equal to the debt service payments and any other additional payments as defined in the financing lease. The authority assigns its rights to rental payments from the county to the bond trustee, US Bank. In the event of non-appropriation, the trustee could take possession of the project, and the county would be unable to use it for its essential governmental purposes. The lease rental payments are not subject to abatement A reduction, a decrease, or a diminution. The suspension or cessation, in whole or in part, of a continuing charge, such as rent. With respect to estates, an abatement is a proportional diminution or reduction of the monetary legacies, a disposition of property by will, when or reduction, and the county manager covenants to include the funds necessary to pay the lease rental payments in the budget that is submitted to the county board. Lease rental payments are due to the trustee on July 10 and Jan. 10, prior to debt service payments of Aug. 1 and Feb. 1. There is no debt service reserve fund. The IDA was created in 1978 by a county ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been and is governed by seven directors appointed by the county board. |
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