California Cruising Towards Junk

Looks like we might get our answer sooner than later… we go:

SAN FRANCISCO,  (Reuters) – California, struggling to close a $24.3 billion budget gap, faces the prospect of a “multi-notch” downgrade in its credit rating if the state’s legislature fails to act quickly to produce a budget, Moody’s Investors Service warned on Friday.

The ratings agency’s decision to place California’s general obligation debt on alert for such a dramatic possible downgrade stunned state officials.

“I cannot remember reading a ratings note that raised the specter of a multi-notch downgrade,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “It’s another clear warning from the financial markets that there will be substantial and costly consequences if the legislature does not send the governor a budget that he can sign.”

Moody’s in a statement cited California’s expected massive shortfall for fiscal 2010 of more than 20 percent of its general fund budget and limited options for plugging it.

The state’s current A2 credit rating is Moody’s sixth-highest investment grade and makes California the lowest rated of the 50 states. The A2 rating is just five notches above speculative status and Moody’s raised the potential for the rating to tumble toward “junk” status.

Socialize