City of Tacoma insists finances OK, after erroneous S & P report

The City of Tacoma insists its financial house is in order, after Monday’s erroneous reports said Standard & Poor downgraded the city’s credit rating.

City Spokesman Rob McNair Huff says officials didn’t even know about it until reporters started calling.

“We’re dealing with press releases and media stories trying to get to the root of what Standard & Poors had really done here.”

Huff says because Tacoma used bonds to pay for the Federal Courthouse in the early 90s, the S&P lumped the long finished project in with its lowered confidence in the federal government’s overall finances.

“It appears that what happened with the City of Tacoma is similar to what’s happened in other cities across the country where there are federal facilities with lease payments that back bonds.”

Huff says it has nothing to do with the city’s finances, just S&P’s lowered confidence in the feds to pay the rent.