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Prince George's County has again earned the highest possible grade by one of the top three Wall Street ratings firms.

In a report issued Monday, officials for Moody's Investors Service upgraded the county from AA+ to the AAA bond rating, the highest score possible. The rating, which is the county's equivalent of a perfect credit score, allows the government to pay lower interest rates on bonds it sells to finance major construction.

Ratings are determined independently by three major agencies: Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch Ratings, who issue annual reports on a rotating basis on the county's economic outlook. Standard & Poor's was the first agency to rank the county as AAA in 2008.

The latest rating follows a June visit to New York by County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), who called the new upgrade a "tremendous accomplishment."

"When I leave office in December, I will do so completely satisfied with the financial integrity and stability of Prince George's County," Johnson wrote in a statement.

Johnson is prevented by term limits from seeking re-election this year.

When the county first broke the AAA ceiling two years ago, Johnson held a celebration that included signs along county roadways, a marching band and balloons. Maryland has held a AAA bond rating for years from all three agencies, as have Montgomery, Baltimore and Howard counties.

In this year's round of ratings, Moody's analysts said the county has made significant gains in its $106.5 billion tax base since 2000 and said that, despite a resident-imposed cap on property tax increases, Prince George's is currently looking more financially stable than its neighbors.

"The projections are better than many other Maryland counties, which are expected to experience declines in their tax base," Moody's analysts wrote in their report.

Prince George's County's tax base is expected to remain flat in the next year, said analysts, who also noted planned openings of office and retail space.

Last year, Fitch Ratings officials decided not to upgrade the county's AA+ rating and changed the description of the county's future outlook from "stable" to "negative".

In their report, Fitch analysts cited a "structural imbalance" that the county has addressed through furloughs and money transfers from the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

In their new report, Moody's officials said the imbalance remains a concern, but that they plan to watch how the county resolves its fiscal problems by July 2012.

When contacted for further comment, both Johnson and Moody's referred to their statements.

dvalentine@gazette.net