Standard & Poor's downgrades Minnesota's credit rating

Mark Dayton and Majority Leader Kurt Zellers: We're screwed, let's shake on it.

​Standard & Poor's is the third of the big three credit ratings agencies to knock down Minnesota's score.

In the last three month, the "big three" have been taking big chunks out of Minnesota's financial reputation one at a time. First it was Fitch, which knocked Minnesota down from Triple-A to Double A-plus in July. Then Moody's took the same step, only with harsher wording, ticking the state down from "stable" to "negative."

Now S & P has joined the pile-on: Like Fitch, it dropped Minnesota from Triple-A to Double A-plus.

At this rate, Minnesota will never be able to get that mortgage we've all been talking about.

Wikipedia

How will we ever refinance our mortgage on this thing?

​Like Moody's did last month, S & P analysts cited Minnesota's ridiculous budget deal in its downgrade: New spending, no new taxes, roll some money around and don't pay debts... this stuff doesn't fly with S & P, which took the same step against the United States federal government in August.

"The downgrade reflects what we view as the state's ongoing reliance on nonrecurring measures to balance its budget," analyst Robin Prunty told Minnesota Public Radio.

Just to recap, pretty much all of the recent economic news is bad. We're poor, we all live off the state's dime, and the only people in the whole state with any money have a whole bunch of it, and they got it from their parents. Now, these New York bankers don't even think we're good for our debts.

Any good news to report?

Hey look, the Twins finally won a game! Things are looking up, Minnesota.

Related:

• Fitch downgrades Minnesota's credit
• Moody's downgrades Minnesota to negative