When Tim Cahill announced last week that Fitch Ratings had raised the state’s bond rating, the state treasurer didn’t exactly lay it on thick: the rating upgrade, a press release from his office explained, was “due to the rating agency’s rating recalibration for all of its municipal bond ratings… Fitch announced that it was recalibrating its bond ratings for state and local governments in order to bring its municipal ratings into line with its global ratings scale, including ratings of corporate bonds and sovereign bonds. While not an upgrade due to improved credit, the recalibration to a higher rating will likely translate into lower borrowing costs.”
In effect, the improved bond rating is due to factors beyond Cahill’s control and therefore reflects little on his stewardship of the treasury, except to the extent that the state didn’t become less creditworthy during his tenure. Still, the news is likely to give Cahill’s campaign for governor a positive talking point in the weeks and months to come.
While few race touts give Cahill, an independent candidate, any chance against incumbent Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, or Republican challenger Charles Baker, his campaign rhetoric—in this race and in his earlier races for treasurer—is heavy on references to his “fiscally conservative approach to investing and maximizing the use of taxpayer money” and his identity as an “an independent, fiscally responsible problem solver who consistently holds the line on overspending, offers innovative solutions to complex financial problems, and implements cost-saving reforms that benefit taxpayers across the state.”
The improved bond rating, which, according to the treasurer’s office, “will be the highest for the Commonwealth since 1989″—the year before Republican William Weld, a longtime political ally of Baker, was elected governor—gives Cahill a positive story to put out while he continues to question the competency of his arguably more ideological opponents.
