The rating actions come ahead of Chicago's plans to sell about $502 million of series 2026A GOs and Series 2026B GOs. The downgrade stems from the city's deteriorating fund balance, narrowing liquidity and high and rising fixed cost burden, KBRA said in a statement
The Bonehead Bond Buyer regurgitates the blind-as-a-bat credit rating agencies’ talking points well in this one. This latest round of press releases sound like a bunch of classic CYA to me. For years, the financial conditions that shaped the current stern-up profile of S.S. City of Chicago finances were obvious to all capable of thinking and breathing at the same time. The BAAB rating agencies either willfully ignored Chicago’s bow dipping under the water, or they lack the objectivity they claim to hold dear. In any case, with the stern high in the air and the forecastle long submerged it… Read more »
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
The Bonehead Bond Buyer regurgitates the blind-as-a-bat credit rating agencies’ talking points well in this one. This latest round of press releases sound like a bunch of classic CYA to me. For years, the financial conditions that shaped the current stern-up profile of S.S. City of Chicago finances were obvious to all capable of thinking and breathing at the same time. The BAAB rating agencies either willfully ignored Chicago’s bow dipping under the water, or they lack the objectivity they claim to hold dear. In any case, with the stern high in the air and the forecastle long submerged it… Read more »
Fitch upgraded Chicago as recently as 2024. Now, what exactly do we know now that wasn’t knowable then? Nothing, I’d say.
Perhaps a better question would be: “What has changed since 2024?”
We get the same answer: Nothing.