FY 2012 Popular Annual Financial Report FY 2012 Popular Annual Financial Report | Page 7

a private operator in March of 2005.
Our newest reserve is the Business
Continuity Reserve, also targeted at 3
percent of General Fund Expenditures.
This reserve is in place to ensure
that in the face of funding shortfalls,
service delivery will continue until
sound solutions to the shortfall can be
identified.
Bond Rating
Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and
Fitch rate our credit worthiness and
they consider our reserves one of our
strongest assets. We have been able to
maintain or AA+ and Aa1 bond ratings
through these challenging economic
times. These strong ratings allow us to
issue municipal debt, vital to the City’s
infrastructure, at a lower cost.
Debt
During FY 2012, the City took
advantage of the low cost of borrowing
and issued $43.5 million in Permanent
Improvement & Refunding Bonds to
make various capital improvements and
to refund $11.9 million of commercial
paper notes. The City also issued $16.6
million in Water and Sewer Revenue
Bonds for the purpose of improving
and expanding existing water and
wastewater infrastructure. During the
year, the City paid down principal of
$39.4 million on our general obligation
and certificates of obligation debt,

$15.4 million of our Cowboy Stadium
debt, and $11.6 million on our Water
and Sewer and Stormwater Utility
debt. In total, the City decreased its
outstanding debt by approximately $20
million.

Priorities
In March 2012, the Mayor and
City Council held a Priority Setting
Session and identified four community
priorities in which they wanted to see
notable progress over the next 12 – 18
months. These priorities are:
• Enhance Regional Mobility
• Build a Thriving Community
• Define an Identifiable Brand
• Support Quality Education
We will be focusing our new and
existing resources in these key areas as
we look toward the future.

Awards
The City continued to be
recognized for its outstanding
reporting efforts. We again received
the Certificate of Achievement for
Excellence in Financial Reporting for
our 2011 CAFR, the Certificate for
Outstanding Achievement in Popular
Annual Financial Reporting for our
2011 PAFR, and the Distinguished
Budget Award for our 2012 budget
from the Government Finance
Officers Association. We also received
the Achievement of Excellence in
Procurement Award from the National
Procurement Institute, Inc. And once
again, the State of Texas Comptroller
of Public Accounts recognized us as a
leader in financial transparency.

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