So. What's a credit downgrade to your state government mean, anyway?

By Charles Thompson

cthompson@pennlive.com

In some ways, the great Pennsylvania budget battle of 2017-18 has been the year of the credit downgrade.

Almost from the beginning of Gov. Tom Wolf's budget unveiling last winter, we've been treated to regular predictions of a credit-downgrade, as a state, if we did this thing, or did not do that thing.

And that, we've been warned, would be the worst of all things.

Now it's happened. On Wednesday, S&P Global Ratings formally lowered its rating for Pennsylvania's future general obligation bonds to A+ (It's great for school; not so much for impressing Wall Street.)

The sun still shone.

So what should we really make of this news? PennLive is here to help:

1. To your most pressing question, this does not take us out of the running for Amazon's HQ2.

It has been a real worry around the Capitol this week.

"This is not a good story for Pennsylvania. It's not a good story when we're trying to recruit businesses and industries to Pennsylvania as a good place to operate," said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County.

But according to Princeton, N.J.-based site selection expert John Boyd, the downgrade is not likely a show-stopper.

How do we know this? Chicago.

It has won more than its share of corporate recruitment battles even as the city (homicide rates) and state of Illinois (budget dysfunction that makes Pennsylvania look like the fiscal equivalent of a Swiss watch) were eviscerated in the media.

http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/09/so_whats_a_credit_downgrade_to.html