NJCU Prepares to Float $43 Million in New Bonds
By Jon Whiten • Jul 27th, 2010 • Category: Blog, News
New Jersey City University (NJCU) is preparing to issue two sets of bonds in early August for a total of $43 million. The money will primarily be used to pay down older bonds and fund maintenance projects on campus.
“Due largely to the state’s lack of consistent capital funding support for higher education, the university’s debt burden has consistently been above-average and will increase further with this issuance,” the credit-ratings agency Fitch Ratings notes, echoing a report released by fellow credit-ratings agency Moody’s earlier this month. That report found that NJCU had a debt-to-revenue ratio (0.9x) nearly twice as much as the national median (0.5x).
Still, both agencies are rating the latest NJCU bonds as stable.
Fitch notes the university’s “generally breakeven to positive operating margin and uptrending enrollment” as positives, but adds that “NJCU’s financial cushion … remains weak.”
Meanwhile, the cuts to higher education aid and the cap on raising tuition that Gov. Christie’s administration has implemented “remain challenges,” Moody’s says.
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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