Schaumburg maintains AAA bond rating despite pandemic's challenges

The financial services firm S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has reaffirmed Schaumburg's AAA bond rating, the highest rating a municipality can obtain, the village announced this week.

The rating is a result of the village's preemptive actions to stabilize the budget through the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed for maintaining consistent reserves and liquidity, officials said in the announcement.

S&P previously had changed the village's rating outlook to negative due to the pandemic's impact on economically sensitive tax revenue, such as sales taxes. However, due to strong financial flexibility and a stabilizing local economy, the rating outlook was changed from negative to stable, officials said.

At the onset of the pandemic, the village immediately took action to reduce expenditures by more than $23 million and has continued to closely monitor its budget while the economy has gradually stabilized.

S&P also cited proactive management of many aspects of Schaumburg's budget in the face of health and safety social risks associated with the pandemic.