Ahead of tonight's State of the City speech, Troy Mayor Patrick Madden is touting what he calls "the latest positive indicator of the city’s overall financial condition." WAMC's Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas spoke with Madden this afternoon.
Madden, a first-term Democrat, says for the first time ever, Troy has earned the best Moody's quality rating available for a recent bond anticipation note, or BAN. "Basically somebody buys those notes, and they wanted Moody's to rate these notes. I'm guessing that it's because they were going to re-sell them to clients of theirs. So they wanted to get a sense from Moody's of what the safety of these notes would be so that as they sell them to investors they can market them accordingly. So Moody's came in and they took a look at our records. Of course Moody's looks at us periodically, so they weren't starting from scratch. And then they did an interview just to get a sense of where things stood today. How we looked at our future, and then they rated the bonds based on that. This is a MIG1 rating, Moody's Investment Grade number one, which is the highest note rating you can get from Moody's. It means the Oppenheimer who purchased these bonds can sell them at the best possible price. But what it also means is that these credit markets are available to us. So as we bond for particular capital projects the funds will be available to us and they'll be available to us at good pricing."
Madden says $35.5 million in bond anticipation notes will fund several initiatives throughout the city, including the Seawall Revitalization Project and the restoration of the South Troy and Knickerbacker pools. The city's overall Moody's rating is a positive "A2."
The mayor considers that good news to bring to the State of the City address, scheduled to be given at Russell Sage College tonight at 7. "We have over 200 people registered at this point in time and we are into the waiting list. There was much bigger interest than we had anticipated. We were thinking oh maybe 80, a 100 people will come out, but we were quite impressed with the response rate."
Madden has often said that civic interest is high among Troy residents. The speech comes at a busy time in Troy politics. Madden just announced his reelection bid, City Councilor Mark McGrath resigned this week after being heard using the n-word on an old voicemail obtained by the Times Union, and Republican City Council President Carmella Mantello pleaded guilty to DWAI.
Madden says tonight's address essentially will be a progress review of 2018. "We'll also review what we're looking at in the future, in terms of investments that we're aware of in the developing community, in our non-profit sector, and the things that the city administration will be focusing on in 2019."
Madden notes his address will be livestreamed on the city's YouTube channeland be archived there.
