Wall Street watching for D.C. to make deep budget cuts

Wall Street is watching District officials closely to make sure they make deep budget cuts and don’t dip into the city’s savings to fix a $600 million budget gap in the next fiscal year. That’s the message the city’s top financial officials took home with them after meeting with bond-rating agencies in New York City. Mayor Vince Gray and Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi traveled north on the annual trip to convince the top three bond-rating agencies to preserve the city’s creditworthiness. Gray and Gandhi were joined by D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown and the head of the finance committee, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, in their meetings with Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. The city has a near-perfect rating and keeping it would save millions on future loans. Overall, Brown described the meeting as “productive,” and Evans said it was “positive.”