Erie County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz announced that Erie County today received a two-step upgrade to its credit rating from rating agency Fitch Ratings (“Fitch”). Fitch upgraded the County’s underlying credit rating from BBB- to BBB+ and the County’s outlook is “stable.” The Fitch upgrade follows an August 1, 2008 upgrade to the County’s credit rating by Moody’s Investor’s Service (“Moody’s”) from Baa3 to Baa2 with a stable outlook and the July 18, 2008 upgrade by rating agency Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) from BBB to BBB+ with a stable outlook, placing the County just under an “A” rating.

The Fitch announcement means that two of the three rating agencies monitoring Erie County have now rated the County at just under an “A” rating – a rating that the County has not had since February 2005.

“For the third time since July 2008, an independent, third party that rates municipal debt for the benefit of investors – not the local government – has determined that Erie County is fiscally stable and improving,” said Poloncarz. “This rating upgrade from an independent agency once again confirms what I have been saying for the past year: that the County has significantly improved its underlying financial condition which merits an upgrade and a return to the credit markets.”

Erie County now has the same underlying credit rating as the City of Buffalo from Moody’s (Baa2) and S&P (BBB+). Fitch does not rate Buffalo.

Poloncarz stated, “These three rating upgrades demonstrate that the County has a positive track record since I took office in 2006 and we are making significant, encouraging strides in our financial progress.” He concluded, “Based on this development, and the fact that Buffalo’s control board recently allowed the city to borrow money under its own authority with the same ratings, I urge the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority to immediately authorize the County to sell bonds for our 2007 and 2008 capital projects. This will not only ensure the completion of these much needed projects, but stimulate our local economy by putting to work Erie County residents on tens of millions of dollars worth of vital county infrastructure projects.”