MWA holds bond rating, secures $70.1M for Rocky Creek plant, debt restructuring

By Liz Fabian, Peyton Anderson Civic Journalism Senior Fellow The Macon Water Authority has extra cash in the bank after closing a $70.1 million bond deal at a rate of 2.31% Thursday morning. Stifel Managing Director Trey Monroe informed the board at its Nov. 5 meeting that both Moody s and S P Global affirmed the authority s long-term credit rating of Aa2 and AA/A-1+, respectively for those Series 2026A bonds. Monroe said the agencies examined the authority s list of capital improvement projects and its financial outlook to maintain the water and sewer system before issuing ratings. They ve assessed your rate structure, your finances, everything that goes into that, and have determined that taking on these projects in your capital improvement plan with the additional debt is going to result in no adverse change in the rating. So that was good news, Monroe said. MWA s short-term bond rating was at the highest level of A1+. That s important because it makes them eligible to be pur