{"id":296858,"date":"2010-02-08T23:08:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T04:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a87909c8970b"},"modified":"2010-02-08T23:06:11","modified_gmt":"2010-02-09T04:06:11","slug":"credit-rating-agencies-voice-concern-about-l-a-s-budget-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/296858","title":{"rendered":"Credit rating agencies voice concern about L.A.’s budget crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Representatives from two credit rating agencies expressed concern Monday about Los Angeles’ precarious financial position\u00a0and the City Council\u2019s indecision<\/a> on budget cuts last week.<\/p>\n

In a memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Fitch Ratings told one of his aides they were monitoring a number of factors that could lead them to downgrade the city\u2019s credit rating. They included the erosion of the city\u2019s reserves, the city\u2019s structural deficit and the failure of city officials to reduce the size of the city\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n

Later Monday afternoon, Moody\u2019s Investors Service also told city budget analysts they were concerned that the council had not adopted certain midyear budget adjustments to deal with a $212-million shortfall. Next year, the city\u2019s deficit is expected to rise to $484 million. <\/p>\n

Last November, Fitch downgraded<\/a> the city\u2019s credit rating on $2.94 billion in debt \u2014 a move that made it more expensive for the city to borrow money. <\/p>\n

Santana\u2019s memo quoted a representative from Fitch stating Monday that there was \u201can amazing opportunity for the elected officials to show leadership and for a valid reason. According to the press, though, they can\u2019t seem to step up and make decisions. So if it can\u2019t be done now, then when?\u201d <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the council plans to revisit the three-year budget plan<\/a> outlined by Santana.
<\/br>Villaraigosa, who last week ordered the elimination<\/a> of 1,000 jobs, is expected to make a guest appearance at the council meeting to lay out\u00a0his plan to deal with the\u00a0budget crisis.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

— Maeve Reston at Los Angeles City Hall <\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

twitter.com\/LATimesReston<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Representatives from two credit rating agencies expressed concern Monday about Los Angeles’ precarious financial position\u00a0and the City Council\u2019s indecision on budget cuts last week. In a memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Fitch Ratings told one of his aides they were monitoring a number of factors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4917,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4917"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}