Norwalk secures favorable bond sale, reaffirmed AAA rating

September 16, 2025

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NORWALK — Norwalk sold $53 million in general obligation bonds on Sept. 3, locking in a 3.69% rate and reaffirming its AAA bond rating.

“We did fantastic. We had a historic number of bids. We had 15 bids from 15 different investment banks,” Finance Director Jared Schmitt told the Common Council on Sept. 10. “With all that competition…it led to the low rate…which was a 3.69%.”

Schmitt said both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s reaffirmed the city’s AAA rating with a stable outlook. “It keeps us just a hair above that 20% threshold…that helped to preserve the triple A rating,” he said.

Mayor Harry Rilling cautioned against overusing reserves. “We have to be very cautious…because…we want to make sure that we don’t go below that threshold, because then we’re in a whole different ballgame,” he said.

Council member Jim Frayer called the favorable sale “a tribute to the late Chairman of the Finance and Claims Committee, Mr. Burnett,” crediting his “perseverance” and “attention to detail” for the city’s financial standing.

Comments

2 responses to “Norwalk secures favorable bond sale, reaffirmed AAA rating”

Bryan Meek

September 16, 2025

Look a little closer please.

This $53 million issue will cost taxpayers $1 million every six months until it is paid off.

That money is not reimbursed by the state for the over budget NHS we didn’t need. How much have we spent so far and been reimbursed so far? We don’t know. They won’t tell us.

Why did they steal $4.5 million that was supposed to be spent on new tennis courts and bleachers to pay for demolition the old building. Why wasn’t that money originally budgeted? Who reimburses us for that….I’ll tell you who….taxpayers.

Dig deeper. The bond issue also includes $15 million in Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs). Those are short term, 1 year obligations, to pay for bills in anticipation of being reimbursed by grants.

Stated another way…..we are borrowing $15 million to pay our bills this year because the $380 million in property taxes isn’t enough to cover our spending.

The “free” Norwalk HS is going to cost taxpayers $100 million plus before we are done. That’s $100 million that will not be spent on much, much older buildings in more serious need of repairs.

Don’t be fooled by the victory lap here. The NHS project has screwed our finances for the foreseeable future. The person who helped hatch this project with Bob Duff goes on trial for felony corruption charges October 6th. Paying attention yet?

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Bryan Meek

September 17, 2025

Keeping it simple,…..we just borrowed $15 million in cash at a favorable rate of interest so we could pay bills for two weeks. This city is living paycheck to paycheck right now. At least the city isn’t paying the loan shark rates it charges taxpayers who are in arrears. Ribbon cuttings are more important than reimbursements clearly, since we never get to hear about those.

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