Maryland loses triple-A bond rating from Moody's rating agency
[May 15, 2025] By
BRIAN WITTE
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland lost its triple-A bond rating from
Moody's on Wednesday, a rating the state has cited for more than 50
years as a sign of strong fiscal stewardship.
Moody’s downgraded the state’s credit rating to Aa1. Maryland had
received a triple-A bond rating from Moody’s since 1973. The state has
benefitted from the higher rating by paying the lowest rates when it
sells bonds to pay for infrastructure, likes roads and schools.
“The downgrade was driven by economic and financial underperformance
compared to Aaa-rated states, which is expected to continue given the
state’s heightened vulnerability to shifting federal policies and
employment, and its elevated fixed costs,” Moody’s said.
Gov. Wes Moore and other leading Maryland Democrats blamed President
Donald Trump's mass layoffs of federal workers, which is having a big
impact on the region. The District of Columbia also recently received a
credit-rating downgrade.
“To put it bluntly, this is a Trump downgrade," Moore said in statement
made jointly by the presiding officers of the state's legislature,
Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Treasurer Dereck Davis, who are all
Democrats. “Over the last one hundred days, the federal administration’s
decisions have wreaked havoc on the entire region, including Maryland.”
Maryland Republicans described the downgrade as “a harsh indictment of
the state’s current direction under Governor Wes Moore.”
“Donald Trump didn’t downgrade Maryland’s bond rating — Annapolis
Democrats did. And now they’re scrambling for someone else to blame,"
Republican Sen. Steve Hershey, the Senate minority leader, said in a
statement. "This is the result of reckless spending, bloated budgets,
and an economy that’s been hollowed out by overregulation and
overreliance on the federal government.”
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The Maryland State House is shown, May 11, 2023, in Annapolis, Md.
(AP Photo/Brian Witte, File)
 Moody's had noted earlier this year
that federal cuts pose a greater threat to Maryland than any other
state.
Maryland lawmakers recently concluded a challenging legislative
session to balance the state's budget. They closed a $3.3 billion
budget deficit for the next fiscal year with a combination of tax
increases, budget cuts and fund transfers.
Maryland lawmakers also directed the governor's budget office to
keep track of the impact of federal cuts, alert them if it reaches
$1 billion and make recommendations on how to deal with the impact.
The Democrats' statement noted that Moody's acknowledged that the
state had closed its budget gap, even as it remains exposed to the
economic consequences of federal funding cuts and layoffs.
“Maryland still holds one of the highest possible credit ratings in
the nation," the joint statement said, “and as we have for decades,
we will always pay our debts.”
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