D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown said Monday that he’s hopeful a visit to New York last week by District leaders will persuade credit ratings agencies to remove the “negative outlook” label for the city’s financial future.
“I think we have shown the District is moving in the right direction,” Brown said. “”I do believe we made the case very well that we at least need to be off of negative outlook.”
Brown and other District officials spent Friday meeting with officials from Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, all of which issue assessments on D.C. finances that help drive the interest rates the city pays on its bonds. If the agencies upgrade the District’s rating, a change Mayor Vincent Gray was seeking during the sessions, the city would ultimately save tens of millions of dollars.
Although the District’s bond ratings have been stable since 2009, one ratings agency slapped the “negative” label on D.C. last year as the federal government threatened to slash spending. The agency — Moody’s — cited D.C.’s “unique exposure… to federal government downsizing” in announcing its move, which it said was unrelated to the city’s financial stewardship.
