Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Lancaster County, Pa.’s underlying general obligation rating to A1 from Aa2, affecting $268 million of parity debt.
The downgrade “reflects the county’s limited financial flexibility, which has deteriorated over the last several years, driven by structurally imbalanced budgets, moderate variable-rate and swap exposure, and narrow liquidity position, balanced against a sizeable and relatively stable tax base with average socioeconomic levels,” Moody’s said.
The county’s waste management authority has offered $124 million for the resource recovery facility in state capital Harrisburg, in neighboring Dauphin County.
The financing of the incinerator has been the focal point of Harrisburg’s debt crisis.
