Tiffin maintains current bond rating

The City of Tiffin recently announced Moody's Investors Service has assigned an A1 bond rating to the city. According to a release provided by the city, Moody's, the A1 issuer rating reflects the city's healthy operating fund, recently bolstered by its positive income tax collection trends. The rating also factors in the city's below-average debt burden and moderate annual costs, along with the economic stability provided by the presence of two private universities, Heidelberg University and Tiffin University. The City of Tiffin is offering for sale $3.3 million in General Obligation (Limited Tax) Street Improvement Bonds, according to the release. "I'm pleased that we were able to maintain our A1 bond rating — it shows that the City of Tiffin is in a very good financial standing," Kathy Kaufman, director of finance, said in the release. "Thank you to everyone for their efforts in getting this process completed." What is gained from the bonds is to then be used to "retire outstanding short-term Street Improvement Notes, Series 2021 that were issued in anticipation of the bonds on June 16, 2021, and mature June 15, 2022. Proceeds from the bond anticipation notes were used to finance city street and roadway improvements," the release states. The city will have a total of $11.2 million in outstanding general obligation limited tax debt, following the sale of these bonds, it states. "At a time when other communities struggled with the pandemic and high inflation, the City of Tiffin continues to perform well and this bond rating is further proof of the positive direction we are headed," Tiffin Mayor Aaron Montz said in the release. According to the release, the principal methodology used in this rating was U.S. Local Government General Obligation Debt published in January 2021, available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1260094. The Rating Methodologies page can be viewed on www.moodys.com.