Developers are Crabgrass : AA+ as City of Ramsey's current bond rating. City staff and the council deserve recognition and support for keeping the rating the same as from 2009.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

AA+ as City of Ramsey's current bond rating. City staff and the council deserve recognition and support for keeping the rating the same as from 2009.

I expect this to be discussed at this evening's council meeting. While the rating agencies are indeed imperfect, it is good to see Ramsey's debt service rates likely to track AA+ and not a lower bond rating, where a risk premium would be added atop normal low risk cost-of-borrowing rates for higher rated bonds.

I asked city staff about current rating status, cc'd to the mayor; and Ramsey's CFO, Diana Lund provided a spreadsheet, per the above screenshot (presented for illustrative purposes). Perhaps the city website on its finance dept. page could post a link to the item to make it available online, even though it has limited timliness.

I also say it is "illustrative" because I am unsure how to read it; e.g., for what length of calendar period the tabled numbers apply; where an 0.3% per annum lead top left entry seems low. Without detail of what's represented I prefer not guessing, but giving notice the chart exists and copies can be gotten by Crabgrass readers via a request to CFO Lund.

She noted, "A breakdown of the interest rates for A & higher rated bonds. The City is an AA+ ---- The first tab details the difference in rates. The second tab titled BQ Graph illustrates the difference in rates with a graphic. To load the MS .xls item for a screenshot, I cut it into Google Spreadsheets, and something may have been lost in that cut-over. This, Q and A, from an earlier email exchange:

Diana-

1- Is the City's bond rating under a pending ongoing review? If so by which rating agency or agencies? Yes. We had a rating call last Monday, August 1. Should get rating this week. Ratings firm is S&P (Standards & Poor). The bonds will be sold at the August 23 meeting for the Bunker Lake Bldv/Armstrong Improvements-Backed by Special Assessments and the City's MSA account

2- If there is an ongoing pending review, have you any good guess when a rating decision will be reached? This Week

3- The most recent Finance page on the City website mentions a 2009 review/rating]upgrade, this link:

http://www.ci.ramsey.mn.us/departments/finance.aspx

Is this 2009 info the latest and best, at this point in time, or has there been a subsequent history? This was our last rating as it was our last bond issue.

I ask about this since some bonding is anticipated over the next year or so, and I wondered if there was fresh rating data/info.

Any info you can give would be appreciated. That would include knowledge, even if rough and possibly inexact, about how municipal debt interest rates presently would vary, for each of the different likely bond ratings Ramsey has, and might have. If you'd rather not guess, and bond council has a chart or something, any info would be helpful info. I will send you something from our financial consultant regarding the difference in interest rates for each bond grade.

Eric

Promptness in replying is noted and deserves mention and gratitude. The expectation of keeping the bond rating previously attained was confirmed quickly, once Lund, herself, was informed. The mayor was gracious enough to forward the following:

FYI

From: Paul Donna [mailto:pdonna@northlandsecurities.com]
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 10:54 AM
To: Diana Lund
Cc: Laurie Ukofia; Cyndy Litke; Catherine Winkelhake; David Wheeler
Subject: Ramsey Rating

S&P affirmed the AA+ credit rating. Report to follow.

Feedback from committee:

* Very strong AA+ credit
* Very impressed with finances and management
* AAA is a potential long term. Will first need to see impact of the development / tax increment that is anticipated.

PRD

Paul Donna
Senior Vice President - Public Finance
Northland Securities, Inc
45 South 7th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Direct Dial - 612-851-5905
[contact and disclaimer language omitted]

In relevant part, my reply to Bob:

I will post it and credit the council and staff for maintaining it at the level granted via the 2009 online notice. You should be accorded recognition for that. If you get deep into Flaherty-&-Collins it could change, but we agree, it has not changed and we agree that is a good thing. I expect for Ramsey's part of the Northstar stop, with Flaherty and Collins postponed and not a co-pending bond situation, that the AA+ will still hold on that borrow-and-spend thing.

Thanks for the email.[...]

BOTTOM LINE: It is indeed praiseworthy to see the quality bond rating from 2009 being maintained. It would be costly if the rating were dropped, because the market does take ratings seriously for local municipal bonds where independent investor diligence is not easy. I think the mayor, others on council, staff, and Crabgrass readers would join in wanting to see nothing that would "poison the well" of having a substantial quality bond rating on an ongoing basis as Ramsey funds a share of the rail stop, and weighs the wisdom of other bond-and-spend possibilities.

From Women's March - 10-2-2021 - imagery speaks

Image is cropped from one of a series of Buzzfeed images. Click the image to access the Buzzfeed coverage of that march. This was a major event in Washington, D.C., and it happened mid-way after Trump had been fired by voters in the 2020 election, and before the one approaching. To assert as MN GOP politicians have that abortion is not an issue is an insensitive fiction concocted in some smoke filled GOP backroom. Do not let a GOP intent to deceive misleed your vote. The issue IS ON THE BALLOT. Women deserve dominion over their bodies, we all deserve privacy in our lifetime decision making.

Cracker fear and loathing toward Critical Race Theory has its precedent.

The precedent - Integration dodging intent behind segregated "non-profit" private schools, after the Brown decision was issued. Leading a twisted mind, Paul Weyrich, to issue-monger.

Politico in 2014 posted the true history of the ginned up propagandized opposition to abortion among the nation's hordes of Evangelicals as the "Weyrich solution" to energize the base. Leading to grave mischief. Evangel-Jesus-jockeys, with fellow travelers, (many of whom are surveyed as not as worked up about Roe as Alito would want you to falsely believe). Some, "foaming-at-the-mouth" rabid, however -

This is for you, Gipper and crowd.

Click that Wikipedia image, get THE STORY (and a link to the enlarged image, copyright info and all). GET: Online info leading into a new year via some pre-1947 new "old thoughts." New to many first time voters - this cycle. Not the thoughts, but the history. A history not to be found in Gipper speech transcripts, nor the Gipper's presidential library papers. Hello, Joe, Dem Party history, so pay attention. Pre-Clinton, Pre-Obama, but Dem party new-old nostalgia. Good old ways. Show the guts to walk that talk.

War Crime - Crime Against Humanity - Today, Now.

Let's go Brandon?

Yes, it relates to a NASCAR event, NASCAR attendees making a statement. But given how fifteen bucks got disappeared, and now Build Back Inconsequentially is pending, shouldn't we all chant? Trust whoever you care to, but wouldn't you like to see trust earned? Actions speak louder than words, while inaction when action is needed speaks loudest? Truthfully so? Pharma prices if anything have gone upward since Trump left while Manchin's daughter's a part of it via her grotesque EpiPen market manipulation and price gouging (a/k/a contract, combination, conspiracy in restraint of trade to gain market segment monopolization). Who might they want to fool? Biden's Justice Department appearing to not be looking at EpiPen under antitrust criminal law? Student debt relief is an aim of many, yet Biden has made no move to be helpful. Never mind Medicare for All sidetracked - Not even cosmetic change is being made to Obama's Romneycare? Taking progressives for a buggy ride? DC redux? Money talks? A Congress of old owned lackeys? Let's go Brandon?

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MYOGA - Make Yacht Owners Gain Again

A RIGHT - not a privilege - EVERYBODY'S RIGHT - no limits

JOE BIDEN DOES NOT SUPPORT MEDICARE FOR ALL. That is because Biden's billionaires want to keep every last one of the people beholden, manageable that way, willing to compromise and to worry about the next paycheck and the mortgage, rather than worrying abstractly over the grossly unfair distribution of wealth and power in our nation. Reform of that situation is needed. HOWEVER, with the Biden White House team, we must wait for HOPE and CHANGE. He owes, as a career politician now a millionaire himself, after NOT ever biting a feeding hand. We need Bernie.

Bernie ran for President. Who cares?

Bernie Sanders early 2019 crowds from before the Democratic Party oligarchs did him in, Clyburn, Bloomberg, Biden - the usual suspects. What resonated with those crowds - a candidate for justice and fairness, finally and for us all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7DRwz0cAt0 Joe Biden could have a Lincolnian legacy, if he cuts and runs from the big donor class he has so far courted, makes his platform the heart of that speech and delivers on the promises. If there is the will, there is the way.

More meddlesome in U.S. of A. politics. More money spent over Russians? Does that compute?

click here for image source plus NYTimes coverage.

Will there be blowback? There seems to be a disproportionate sense to DC's media-mania focus. Russians seem to make better theater, while Israelis generate movement on a scale Putin could only dream of? Essays and books could be written . . . However, in 2012 Romney and Bibi preceded Donald and Vlad mischief, in attempted outsider bias of U.S. national elections. Donald never visited Vlad in Russia. Romney did visit and schmooze Bibi, in Israel. "Double standard?" Go figure.

Doug Wardlow's police pal, Bob Kroll.

POLICE ENDORSED has to have a meaning, a context, and a discernible personality. G.R.Anderson writing over a decade ago, in a CityPages item, puts in a context, Bob Kroll, further fleshed out, here. It behooves the public to know who the supporters of a politician are, (photo above), since that reflects on the politician. "Rule of Law" must have a meaning to Kroll, one which few would share. Why is Mainstream Media not asking about POLICE ENDORSED, a Wardlow tout point?

IN ADDITION: In this image, isn't it Bob Kroll standing to the right hand of friend Wardlow? Looks like him. Paired Ellison haters? Anti-Muslim cohorts? How far back does the pairing go? And how has the pairing grown over time or evolved, from what start? Is there some Dobson joinder? The press should inquire.

Douglas Gary Wardlow did not merely throw the first stone . . .

He unleashed an ADF salvo, earning his ADF paycheck. Read about it, here, here and here. Outlawyered on appeal, Wardlow now apparently has no ADF paycheck. Others for ADF are pressing on. ADF appears to be a win-or-go-home team. James Dobson's team, so walk the line. Whatever you think you want, trust me, you do not want James Dobson anywhere near our attorney general office. A Berniecrat is the other choice, and is a good choice because Bernie's policies are the only future the Democratic Party has whether they accept that or not. Aimee Stephens is as human as I am, as human as Wardlow and Dobson and Hillstrom and Pelikan, the latter two seeming to have gone silent. Ms. Stevens should not be bedeviled in this Twenty-first Century. She merely wanted to be herself, do her job, and get her share. That is what each of us wants for ourselves. Evolution of politics is overdue. Ellison got piled on; is getting piled on. Click the above image.

Sell 'em Prosperity Gospel and feed 'em beans. Some never catch on.

What is Prosperity Gospel? It is: Channeling the mind of a brick into GOP and related dogma. Read this Minnesota story. Click the image to read its fine print. (image source: Bluestem Prairie) The image shows a part of the "mind" of a 30 yr. and still-going Prosperity Gospel faithful attendee. A Dev Crabgrass post fleshes things out. Islamaphobia is but one dimension of a larger "GOP base" stupidity. Stupidity you can bank on. HINT: Follow links in items linked here. Questions will get answered. And --- There's more -

DINO NEWS: Democrats in Name Only; they exist as a problem.

a DINO with an up-top money slot

This link. Al Franken in the linked WashTimes item is quoted:
“There are a lot of Minnesotans who are Franken-Trump voters. You have to go and talk to them, and you have to listen. That’s what we need to do. We need to listen.”
Al knows the score better. Al knows Sanders-Franken voter numbers dwarf that Trump-Franken segment, as to where Al needs to pay most attention, "to listen."

Al, in no uncertain terms, should be telling Tom Perez and the beltway money-bunnies of a new fresh smell in the air. Recognizing (in kind wording) one DINO foundation-family's drift, now, into irrelevancy is far from admitting what's relevant and moving full speed to the Bernie side of the force.

Dinosaurs, DINO ways and means, must and will be extinct (can you say "Primary Joe Manchin and Clair McCaskill"). As Al in the item says; listen. Hear Bernie sounding like a giant asteroid strike upon a DINO status quo. Indeed, primary the poster DINO-bunny of artful misdirection and status quo actions, Cory Booker. Gain attention from that, successful or not. Ideally, send Cory to work with Eric Cantor on Wall Street, where his heart is.