Lewisboro Credit Rating Drops Second Straight Year

LEWISBORO – The Town of Lewisboro’s credit rating has dropped for the second consecutive year.

Standard & Poor’s lowered the rating last Friday from AA to A+. Last year, the rating drop from AA+ to AA. The rating was based on the town’s fund balance deficit.

According to documents from Standard & Poor’s, in 2009 the company kept the rating at AA+ but downgraded it from stable to negative. The current rating has been restored to stable, according to  Supervisor Charles Duffy.

“My gut reaction to this downgrade is it is where I expected us to be downgraded to in March 2010,” Duffy said. “This annual review and subsequent downgrade includes the term stable. I equate that to mean we have addressed the ‘structural imbalance’ referred to in the November 2009 and March 2010 [ratings reports] by possibly having the first operating surplus in six years.”

Duffy said that his administration’s implementation of professional business practices and fiscal controls has led to a turnaround and that the town no longer spends more than it brings in. He said he informed the Town Board immediately upon hearing of the current downgrade, noting he learned of the previous downgrade when he took office and discovered the information in a stack of papers. He said he believes the town is now on the right track.

“We are on the road to recovery and I intend to pursue this strategy without the suggested additional 20-percent tax increases that others have repeatedly endorsed,” Duffy said. “We pay enough taxes. It is my, and the board's duty to manage taxpayers’ monies responsibly, not to add unnecessarily to an already burdensome expense to our residents”.

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