CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The bond rating agencies still like a lot of things about the state’s financial condition, state Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy said following a recent meeting with the big three.
Hardy and other state officials met with representatives from Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch Group earlier this month at the state capitol marking the first time those agencies have traveled to Charleston in about 20 years.
Hardy said although the state’s revenue issues have been much talked about there’s no reason to ignore some of the good things that continue to happen.
“We are viewed by those rating agencies as a state that has done a really good job trying to address a lot of problems,” Hardy said. “The opposite being Illinois and New Jersey.”
The bonding agency representatives were impressed with the now 23-year history of the state sticking with its pension debt program and the state being close to retiring its old workers’ compensation debt, Hardy said.
“It’s easy to look at the last two or three years and get disappointed and of course we had a lot of hurdles to get over and more in the future, but the foundation of the house is still pretty good,” Hardy said.
Hardy said the governor’s office had a two to three hour presentation for each agency. Gov. Jim Justice spoke with each agency for about 45 minutes.
Fitch downgraded West Virginia’s bond rating last September from ‘AA+’ to ‘AA.’