Is Virginia at risk of losing its credit rating because of the budget impasse?
Virginia has the gold standard of credit ratings, triple A. The best credit rating out there, at least for now. But the current budget standoff could jeopardize that says David Bieri at Virginia Tech.
"Who are the ratings for? The ratings are for investors, and investors worry about unpredictable issues as far as budgetary resolution is concerned, and they worry about uncertainty in general," Bieri says. "In that sense, what we're currently seeing out of Richmond should give us some pause."
The idea that the credit rating agencies on Wall Street would look at the budget impasse in Virginia as a reason to downgrade the Commonwealth seems kind of far-fetched to Christopher Harrington at Virginia Commonwealth University.
"I find it hard to imagine that a credit rating agency would downgrade us simply because of a budget impasse," Harrington says. "I don't think there's precedent for that."
The deadline for the House and the Senate and governor to come to some kind of agreement is at the end of this month.
