Despite the gloomy fiscal outlook for so many New York State counties, Standard & Poor’s, one of the three major bond rating agencies, today upgraded Suffolk County’s credit rating from an A to A+, the highest rating the agency has ever given Suffolk since it first assigned a rating to the County in 1976.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, County Comptroller Joseph Sawicki, Jr., and the Legislature’s Presiding Officer, Joseph T. Caracappa, presented the county’s case to credit rating agency analysts on April 25 in Hauppauge. County Treasurer John Cochrane was also in attendance. With its announcement today, Standard & Poor’s has made it clear that it is bullish on Suffolk County.

In assigning the upgrade, S&P’s analysts cited the County’s "proactive financial management" which led to the closure of a large projected budget gap in 2005 through a host of innovative cost cutting initiatives and "steadily increasing tax stabilization reserve fund levels and continued economic expansion."

The presentations came at a time when the County is posed to enter the markets with a $42.8 million new money bond issue and a large refunding bond issue. The higher credit rating will reduce the interest rate that the County pays investors when it issues debt to fund County projects.

"I’m pleased to see that S&P has recognized this administration’s efforts to maintain and improve fiscal stability in the County by rewarding us with this historic upgrade," said Levy.

"We are ecstatic over the news and are hopeful that the rating agencies will continue to be optimistic. We have built a strong and impressive management team and we continue to prove to the agencies that we have the ability to tackle our fiscal issues in a proactive, bipartisan and intelligent manner," Levy said.