October 19th, 2020 – Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter is pleased to announce that Moody’s Analytics, Inc. reaffirmed the Town’s financial Aaa status with a stable outlook for the 5th consecutive time. The Town’s rating was first upgraded in March 2016 to Aaa, was reaffirmed Aaa in September 2016, September 2017, October 2018, April 2019, and once again in October, 2020.

The rating agency announced in its Aaa reassignment, “The stable outlook reflects expectation of continued strong operations given prudent management and continued growth and diversification in the local economy. Financial management is strong as evidenced by consistently sound reserves, and an informal policy to maintain unassigned reserves above 10%,” according to the agency’s press release. “Islip benefits from a sizeable tax base, conveniently located in Suffolk County near several major metro centers. The town will continue to benefit from its location near several major employment areas. Additionally, as the pandemic has gone on, interest in housing has picked up substantially. The turnover of homes from empty nesters to young families will likely continue through much of the second half of this year,” the release further states.

“I am pleased that together with the cooperation of the Town Board, we were able to maintain our strong Aaa rating,” said Supervisor Angie Carpenter. “As we prepare for the 2021 budget, we continue working closely with our Commissioners to tighten budgets as necessary, making certain that each and every taxpayer dollar spent is done with the utmost scrutiny. We have continued our zero-based budgeting to our spending plans, assuring that no projects move forward unless they are deemed truly essential. These are the strategies that enabled us to get the initial upgrade early in 2016, and which we continue to adhere to as we move forward through these unprecedented challenging times,” she said.

Supervisor Carpenter, Comptroller Joe Ludwig and staff met in early 2016 with representatives from Moody’s, closely analyzing the Town’s financial documents and conducting a tour of Islip’s tremendous resources. At that time, Moody’s upgraded the Town’s bond rating to Aaa, the highest rating that can be assigned to a municipality.

“Our willingness to look at the process realistically is something that continues to have a positive impact with the rating agencies. The goal always has to be, to maximize our revenues and decrease our expenditures,” said Joseph Ludwig, Town of Islip Comptroller.

“The Town of Islip is committed to continued sound, appropriate, economic development, while at all times, preserving a good quality of life for our residents. Sometimes the decisions to be made are tough, but our residents deserve no less,” said Supervisor Carpenter.

Moody’s financial ratings are used by banks and others in the financial services industry, to determine the financial health of a given organization. A positive bond rating translates to the most favorable rates when going to the bond market. A recent refinancing yielded an unmatched rate of 0.29%.