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Fitch Affs San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Dist's (CA) GOs at 'AAA'; Sales Tax Revs at 'AA'.

Article Excerpt
SAN FRANCISCO -- Fitch Ratings affirms the 'AAA' rating on the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), CA's $467 million general obligation (GO) bonds and the 'AA' rating on its $708 million in outstanding sales tax revenue bonds. The Rating Outlook on all bonds is Stable.

The 'AAA' rating on the GO bonds reflects the unlimited ad valorem tax pledge over a large, diverse and wealthy three-county property tax base, and bondholders' first lien and sole claim on property tax revenue.

The 'AA' rating on the sales tax revenue bonds reflects the wealthy and diverse sales tax base, relatively low leverage of the pledged sales tax revenues, the region's strong long-term economic fundamentals, financial flexibility afforded by the high farebox recovery ratio, and strong financial position. These strengths are balanced by labor cost pressures and the volatility inherent to sales tax revenues and ridership, which is particularly evident currently. While BART's ability to maintain historical levels of debt service coverage may be challenged due to sizeable capital costs to replace the system's aging cars, Fitch does not expect coverage to fall below levels acceptable for the...

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