Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Knox County bond rating toes the line

(Earlier, I posted some more about the KTSC mess.)

In the latest spin job released by Big “Michael Grider” Sexy, the administration says Standard & Poor has recently affirmed the county's AA+ bond rating. Click right smack here for the deep spin.

County Mayor Tim Burchett in a quote no doubt written by his chief of staff, Potentate Rice, says: “S&P offered proof of the success of our efforts when they affirmed our AA+/stable long-term bond rating. We are doing the right things: reducing the amount of money government spends, increasing efficiencies, paying down our debt and shrinking the size of local government in general.”

Don't get me wrong, a strong bond rating is a good thing. But, the county earned it because of our low tax rate. Not because of “increasing efficiencies” or “shrinking . . . local government.” In fact, look at the past administration. I think it's safe to say that efficiencies weren't increased and government wasn't shrunk. Yet, that's when the bond rating got to where it is now.

But, fist-bumps to everyone, I suppose. It could have been lowered.

Still, local government as always is mostly ridiculous. The glass is half full. And all that.

UPDATE: Big Sexy, or BS for short, sent me a quote from S&P's report: “We consider Knox County's financial position very strong due to tight expenditure controls and conservative revenue estimates.” He also sent me the original report, which is right smack here.

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