Free Republic

<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger has missed a Golden State opportunity, no matter how he spins the economic recovery plan he signed on Friday.</p> <p>The deal -- to be put to voters on a March 2 ballot -- includes a $15 billion bond to cover past debt, a balanced-budget requirement for the future and provisions for a rainy day fund. All well and good. But absent from the package are any long-term spending controls, which is how California arrived at its $38 billion deficit in the first place.</p>

<p>Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- California, the U.S. state with the highest borrowing costs, had its credit rating on $30 billion of bonds cut one level by Moody's Investors Service after lawmakers rejected Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's spending cap.</p> <p>Moody's downgraded California's general obligation bonds to Baa1, the third lowest of 10 investment grades, from A3. After the third ratings cut in 10 months, California is rated the same by Moody's as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, as well as Lithuania, Malaysia, Thailand and Chile.</p>

<p>A second bond rating agency lowered California's credit rating Monday, saying the $99 billion budget signed into law Saturday doesn't do enough to trim the state's long-term debt.</p> <p>Though the state already has the nation's lowest credit rating, Gov. Gray Davis' finance director said he was pleased Moody's didn't chop the rating to near junk-bond status, as Standard & Poor's did on July 24.</p>

Wall Street firm chops California's credit rating DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer Thursday, July 24, 2003 ©2003 Associated Press URL: http://sfchronicle.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/07/24/financial2126EDT0265.DTL (07-24) 18:26 PDT SACRAMENTO (AP) -- SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's credit rating, already the worst in the nation, was lowered to near junk bond status Thursday by one of the nation's top credit agencies. Standard & Poor's cited the state's pending gubernatorial recall election and delays in adopting a new state budget to trim a record $38 billion deficit. But the announcement came as Senate leaders announced a budget agreement that would cut the deficit to about $8 billion...