Moody's Upgrades NJ Credit Rating for 3rd Time in Democratic Adm.

snip

GOOD MOODY’S — Moody’s upgraded New Jersey’s credit rating for the third time in Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, moving it from Aa3 to A1, which is in its second-highest tier and considered “high quality and very low credit risk.” Murphy has made upgrading New Jersey’s credit rating, which lowers borrowing costs, a big priority of his administration and has repeatedly personally met with the agencies, and has contrasted it with repeated downgrades under his predecessor. Altogether, it’s the ninth credit rating upgrade under his administration, and though that’s the common way to put it, it’s a bit misleading since that’s among multiple agencies and can give the false impression it went up nine notches. Moody’s cited the state’s surplus. Riveting quote here: “New Jersey's Aa3 issuer rating is supported by maintenance of financial reserves sufficient to absorb adverse economic impacts, combined with growing tax revenue, which will help the state extend its positive liability management trends. New Jersey is in its fifth consecutive year of full actuarial pension contributions, and also has defeased about $4 billion of debt while avoiding an approximately equal amount of new issuance by cash funding infrastructure projects since fiscal 2021.”