Columbia County Board of Commissioners are pleased to announce the county has received its bond ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, FitchRatings, and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service. Columbia County was issued the following ratings: Aaa from Moody’s; AA+ from S&P; and AAA from Fitch.

According to S&P, “Columbia County has strong management with good financial policies and practices.” FitchRatings states, “The county’s very healthy financial operations provide significant resilience to address an economic downturn and the ability to rapidly rebuild financial flexibility when needed.” The ratings are a direct result of the visits made to the county by each agency.  Columbia County is one of only a few Georgia counties, and the only county outside of the Metro Atlanta area to possess two “AAA” ratings.

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017, Columbia County’s 2017 General Obligation Bonds were successfully marketed and sold to investors. More than 25 investors purchased the County’s bonds with investor demand totaling more than $80 million. Columbia County’s bonds were 10-17 basis points below two other bond issues and will end up saving the taxpayers approximately $2 million.

The county expects to receive the money from the sale of the bonds within the next couple of weeks.  At this time the staff is working diligently to prioritize the projects that were presented as a part of the General Obligation Bond during the November 2016 election. Proposals will be presented to committees in the coming weeks for approval and to begin design of the projects.