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L.A. to Standard & Poor's: We Don't Need You and Your Stinkin' Credit Rating
Photo by Yury Kozlov via Shutterstock
Los Angeles has a lesson to teach credit rating agency Standard & Poor's: Downgrade our credit rating and we just won't hire you anymore. (You can almost see us thumbing our nose, right?) Basically, L.A. is joining in with other cities and counties in giving the group the boot and claiming their rating doesn't really mean much, anyhow.Steve Ongele, the newly-appointed Interim Treasurer for the City of Los Angeles, has been vocal about the collective disappointment in S&P: "We have really lost faith in S&P's judgment," he has said, according to the L.A. Times.
In fact, Ongele suggested in Monday's City Council Budget and Finance Committee meeting that kicking S&P to the curb gives us a " big bragging right."
However, as the Times points out, there's no fat lady singing when it comes to L.A. and S&P, because while the City is canceling our credit rating contract with them, we're keeping our contract with them to rate L.A.'s general obligation bonds--our debt.
We can at least celebrate that canceling one of the contracts will save cash-poor L.A. $16,000 a year.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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