Bonds Earn A-Plus Rating for County

Ventura County won’t be feeling any fiscal repercussions from Orange County’s recent bankruptcy filing, officials said, thanks to the high marks it has received from two Wall Street bond-rating agencies.

Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service have each granted the county an A-plus bond rating, which means it will be able to avoid high interest costs or insurance requirements on its short-term borrowing, officials said.

Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon and other county officials traveled to New York recently to meet with representatives of the two rating agencies. He said officials were reassured on that visit that the county’s conservative investment policies had paid off.

“It makes me feel real good,” Mahon said of the county’s ability to maintain its high bond ratings. “To be perfectly honest . . . we fully expected it.”

As a result of Orange County’s financial debacle, officials had worried that the county would have to buy costly insurance to cover its short-term borrowing for the first time. Ventura County plans to borrow $85 million next month to carry it over until it collects future tax payments.

Orange County, which had engaged in risky investment practices for years, filed for bankruptcy in December after suffering trading losses of nearly $1.7 billion in its investment pool.