Topic: Timeshare – Fitch Rates Maui County, Hawaii's $35MM GOs 'AA'; Upgrades Outstanding – PR-USA.net (press release)
Fitch Ratings assigns a 'AA' rating to Maui County, Hawaii's $35 million General Obligation (GO) bonds, 2008 series A and upgrades $253. The upgrade reflects the tourism-dominated economy's strong performance, which, together with an expansion of the property tax base, enabled the county to significantly improve its financial operations and enhance reserves to high levels. These factors are balanced by the intrinsic elasticity of demand for leisure and business travel despite the area's strong draw and a rapidly rising home foreclosure rate, although the level remains below the U. Maui's tourism base has strong underpinnings, drawing on its natural beauty, availability of mid-to-high end accommodations, and accessibility to both domestic and international visitors. With several years of strong economic activity and the addition of a higher tax rate for timeshare properties, the county has run consistent operation surpluses for the last five fiscal years. read more
[Tags]strong, county, years, count, debt, fiscal, timeshare[/Tags]