OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings raised its long-term rating and underlying rating (SPUR) to 'AA' from 'AA-' on the LosAngeles Community RDA Successor Agency, Calif.'s (CRA/LA) series 2014C and 2014D tax allocation revenue refunding bonds (TARRBs), issued for the Bunker Hill project area. CRA/LA is a Designated Local Authority and Successor Agency (SA) to the former City of Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AA' long-term rating to the Los Angeles County Redevelopment Refunding Authority's TARRBs, series 2016A, issued for the CRA/LA. The outlook on all ratings is stable.

"The raised ratings reflect our view of the bonds' higher maximum annual debt service coverage due to the refunding of existing debt, which reduces the total debt service requirements and increases coverage," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Li Yang.

The series 2016A TARRBs are secured by debt service payments made by the CRA/LA on its subordinate local tax allocation refunding bonds, which are in turn secured by a subordinate pledge of moneys deposited from time to time in the redevelopment property tax trust fund (RPTTF) generated from the 31 project areas of the CRA/LA subject to prior claims from other project areas.

The authority TARRB ratings reflect our opinion of the credit quality of the local obligations, as well as:

An SA covenant in the indenture to request amounts on its recognized obligation payment schedule (ROPS) to comply with fiscal agent and indenture flow of fund provisions;The county's intercept of pledged revenue within the RPTTF for deposit to the trustee for deposit in the bonds' special funds, to the extent requested on the SA's ROPS; andProhibition against additional senior or parity debt at the authority level. Our opinion of the local obligations' credit quality is based on the:

Strong 2016 subordinate-lien all-in maximum annual debt service coverage from pledged revenues of nearly 4.9x from subordinate RPTTF revenue after other agency obligations are paid;Central location in the broad and diverse metropolitan Los Angeles economy, with a very large tax base and low taxpayer concentration;Fully funded debt service reserve fund; andTrust indenture provisions that do not allow for additional parity bonds except for refunding purposes.