BANGOR – Two major credit rating agencies have upheld the city’s bond ratings, citing Bangor’s significance to the regional economy as a major financial and service center, stable outlook and moderate overall debt load.

Moody’s, a New York-based credit rating agency, this week assigned the city an Aa3 rating, unchanged from last year. In addition, Boston-based Standard & Poor’s issued the city a similar rating of AA-minus, also unchanged from last year.

“The two are comparable to one another,” City Finance Director Debbie Cyr said Friday of the independent ratings.

“Those aren’t their highest ratings but for us, they’re good ratings,” Cyr said. “We tend to get very good ratings.

“Some of the biggest [reasons] are that we do a lot of work in finance management and we’re pretty much right on target when it comes to budgeting. We also have healthy reserves and our management is stable,” she said.

According to Cyr, city officials were concerned that Bangor’s bond ratings might be downgraded as a result of LD 1, a state tax reform plan that boosts funding for education but limits the city’s ability to raise taxes for municipal needs

Bonds are secured by the city’s “full faith and credit pledge,” or ability to raise taxes to cover repayment.

While LD 1 allows city councilors to override state-imposed limits on tax rate increases, the law also allows citizens to petition for referendums to overturn such overrides.

“What saved us is that we have a provision in our city charter that [prohibits] referendum initiatives for budget reasons,” Cyr said.

The upheld ratings, which also apply to the city’s $106 million in outstanding general obligation bonds, bode well for the plans to issue nearly $6 million more in bonds later this month.

Cyr said that two bond packages totaling $5.965 million would finance: sprinklers for hangars and other outbuildings at Bangor International Airport at $2.3 million; police station construction, $2 million; improvements to the Grants building for the University of Maine System chancellor’s headquarters, $1 million; and the latest installment of the city’s fleet replacement program, $650,000.