DETROIT — Seven months out of bankruptcy, Detroit won a crucial vote of confidence Wednesday in its ability to borrow as the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s rated as investment grade $245 million in bonds the city will soon sell to pay for upgrades to its police and fire departments and other critical public services.
S&P rated the bonds at "A/stable," considered an upper-medium grade and a significant improvement for a city whose ratings slid well into junk status as its financial condition careened toward collapse and the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing in 2013. The sale is the city's first step toward rebuilding its credit-worthiness in the public bond markets.
"When you've lost your financial credibility over many years, you have to rebuild it one step at a time, and today is a big step," Mayor Mike Duggan told the Free Press.
Duggan said another big step was the city balancing its budget last year for the first time in a decade, and he and the City Council are on their way to a second balanced budget for 2015-2016.
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