NOTE: The Maryland Senate Republican Caucus shared the following press release:
ANNAPOLIS — Today, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey and Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready issued the following statement in response to reports that the State of Maryland has ended its decades-long relationship with Moody’s Investors Service, one year after the agency downgraded Maryland’s bond rating.
“Maryland Democrats just fired Moody’s because they didn’t like what Moody’s had to say. Moody’s downgraded Maryland’s bond rating for the first time in over 50 years, citing reckless spending, ballooning deficits, and economic mismanagement. Instead of heeding that warning and changing course, Treasurer Dereck Davis literally said, “to hell with Moody’s,” and replaced them with a lesser-known firm that handed Democrats the AAA rating they wanted.
This isn’t fiscal leadership. This is shooting the messenger.
The problems Moody’s identified don’t disappear because you found a friendlier rating agency. Maryland still faces a projected $3+ billion structural deficit. Taxpayers are still on the hook for higher borrowing costs. And Marylanders are still paying the price for years of failed fiscal decisions made by Annapolis Democrats.
If you don’t like your doctor’s diagnosis, finding a new doctor doesn’t cure the disease. Maryland’s financial challenges are real, and no amount of political spin will change that.
With an $800 million bond sale happening this week, Marylanders deserve honesty about the state of our finances, not a ratings shopping trip designed to protect one-party rule in Annapolis.”