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December
20, 2002 |
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Moody’s
Upgrades MTA Bond Ratings (Los
Angeles) - Moody’s Investor Service has announced that it has upgraded
the rating on MTA’s Proposition A First Tier Senior Sales Tax Revenue
Refunding Bonds to Aa3, up a notch from A1. It also upgraded the rating
for MTA’s First Tier Second Senior bonds secured by Proposition A sales
tax revenues to A1 from A2. The
rating upgrades impact all of MTA’s outstanding Proposition A First Tier
bonds, as well as the planned “Series 2003-A” bonds to be issued in
early 2003, and will likely result in lower interest costs on future
Proposition A bond issues. Moody’s
noted that the ratings upgrades reflect credit strengths including a
“large, diverse sales tax base (that) has shown resiliency in the
current economic slowdown.” It also pointed to MTA’s new management
team and organizational structure, which it said is “focused on service
delivery, asset maintenance and compliance with (the) Consent Decree,” a
federal court settlement MTA signed in October 1996 that called for a
series of Metro Bus improvements to reduce overcrowding. MTA-122 |
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