King County, Washington, boasts trio of triple-As as it preps competitive sale

King County, Washington, had its triple-A bond ratings affirmed ahead of plans to sell $422.2 million of limited tax general obligation bonds competitively on Wednesday.

The bonds will be auctioned in two tranches: $234.17 million of Series B fixed-rate tax exempt LTGO and refunding bonds at 7:45 a.m., Pacific time, and $118.035 million of Series C taxable LTGOs at 8:15 a.m., Pacific time.

The proceeds will fund land acquisitions, solid waste division capital improvements and other projects. If market conditions are favorable, proceeds will also be used to refund 2025 Series A-E and 2016 Series A LTGOs, targeting maturities with 4% and 5% coupons, according to offering documents.

Piper Sandler (PIPR) is the municipal advisor. Pacifica Law Group is bond and disclosure counsel.

Moody's Ratings assigned its Aaa rating and both S&P Ratings and Fitch Ratings assigned AAA ratings to the proposed bonds and affirmed the ratings on the $1.63 billion in outstanding in LTGOs and unlimited GOs and $3.3 billion in outstanding revenue bonds, as of Dec. 31, 2024, according to financial statements.

All affirmed stable outlooks.

The 2,100-square-foot county includes Seattle and Bellevue and encompasses a large segment of the Puget Sound region. Nearly one-third of the state's population, 2.4 million residents, resides in King County, according to the offering documents.

"We view the county as having well-above average economic metrics that are among the highest in the nation with income levels well above the national average, robust management policies and practices reflecting active responses to effective budgetary adjustments, maintenance of available reserves at a minimum of 25% of revenue in recent years, and a generally positive trend of financial performance despite recent budgetary challenges stemming from rising operating costs," S&P analysts said in a Nov. 7 report.

Moody's cited King County's solid underlying economic fundamentals and a robust economy including the city of Seattle, which is supported by large market-leading businesses in technology, aviation, retail and consumer goods.

The county's large wealth tax base declined 5% in 2024 but rebounded to an assessed value of $873 billion in 2025, Moody's said in a Nov. 14 credit analysis.

The county's economic strength and highly educated population were cited by Moody's in the stable outlook as was management's proven ability to make adjustments and maintain reserves at levels compliant with its fund balance policy.

A notable trend is salary increases for county employees driven by inflation and a tight labor market, Fitch analysts wrote.

Though the county is expected to draw on its fund balance, it's also anticipating being able to maintain a fund balance at or near 15% of spending, Fitch said.

Software development and aircraft manufacturing are the regional strengths and some of the country's most well-known corporations including Amazon, Boeing (BA) and Microsoft (MSFT) have headquarters or major operating bases in the Seattle metropolitan area, according to the offering document.

King County's unemployment rate was 4.3% in August, below the state's 4.5% rate and the nation's 4.6% rate, according to the most recent figures from the Washington Employment Security Department.