S&P maintains Huntington Town’s AAA rating

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has maintained Huntington’s AAA general obligation bond rating, with the town’s outlook listed as stable.

The report, released Friday, said the stable outlook “reflects our opinion of management’s ability to manage near-term budgetary challenges brought on by declines in the economically sensitive revenue stream while maintaining historically strong reserves.”

“What’s significant here is that we’ve been able to retain the triple “A” ratings in bad times,” Town Supervisor Frank Petrone said Monday. "Because there’s more of a tendency for ratings agencies to want to be extremely cautious and not give that rating out.”

The AAA rating applies to the $13.43 million in bonds the town expects to sell later this week to finance various capital projects, as well as the town’s $83.9 million in outstanding debt.

Competing ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s last week gave the town AAA ratings for the same bonds. However, Moody’s gave the town a negative outlook, citing the town’s amortization of about 33 percent of the required pension contribution in 2012.