NM Credit Outlook Clouded by Failure of Super Committee

Business Week - South Carolina, Tennessee and 119 top-rated municipal issuers had their credit outlook raised by Moody’s Investors Service to stable from negative, where they were placed because of exposure to federal spending cuts. The outlook remains negative for three top-rated states -- Maryland, New Mexico and Virginia -- and 36 municipalities, school districts and authorities because of their sensitivity to changes in U.S. aid or federal employment, Naomi Richman, a Moody’s analyst, said today in a statement. “Issuers with outlooks that remain negative are viewed as having greater exposure to potential cuts,” said Richman, a managing director in New York. Moody’s had revised the outlook for all the issuers to negative on Aug. 4 after taking the same step on U.S. government debt on Aug. 2. All are rated Aaa by the credit-grading company. The “expanded evaluation” of each government or agency looked at measures of federal aid and employment, health-care jobs, Medicaid spending and short-term debt, Richman said. The company also examined “exposure to capital markets disruptions” based on short-term debt, she said. South Carolina and Tennessee have “relatively lower levels of financial and economic exposure” to U.S. spending, Moody’s said. The economies of Maryland, New Mexico and Virginia “are highly dependent on federal employment and federal spending,” said Nick Samuels, a Moody’s analyst in New York. Read full story here: News New Mexico

NM Credit Outlook Clouded by Failure of Super Committee