Lackawanna Loses Rating

Moody’s Investors Service withdrew its rating for Lackawanna County, Pa., affecting $202.7 million of outstanding general obligation debt.

“The withdrawal of the rating reflects a lack of sufficient and accurate financial information,” Moody’s said, citing “the county’s failure to release its audited financial statements for fiscal 2010, which ended Dec. 31, 2010.”

The county has a history of late financial reporting and inaccurate projections of operating results, according to Moody’s, including a fiscal 2009 audit released in July 2011, 18 months after the close of the fiscal year.

Moody’s withdrew the rating late Tuesday. In September Moody’s dropped Lackawanna five notches to a speculative-grade Ba3.

After Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating on most of the debt to BB in 2010, the county requested that the agency withdraw its rating and it did so. Fitch Ratings does not rate the county.

All of the county’s GO debt is insured.

A Lackawanna County representative said the county had no comment.

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Pennsylvania
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