Politics & Government
Bond Ratings Downgraded for Baldwin Park
The city received a "non-investment" grade from Fitch Ratings.
At a time when Baldwin Park faces , a credit rating agency revised the city's bonds to a "non-investment" grade on Wednesday.
Fitch Ratings downgraded the city's tax allocation bonds that were issued as part of redevelopment projects such as the Puente Merced, site of a store and restaurant.
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These bonds are issued to finance projects by individual cities, and can subsequently be sold to investors.
The previous rating of the bonds was "BBB", which is considered satisfactory and "investment grade." They are now reduced to "BB," considered as "non-investment" and "subject to changes in the economy".
Find out what's happening in Baldwin Parkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
As one of the reasons for the downgrade, Fitch cited the decline of assessed value of the properties within Baldwin Park's redevelopment areas, which has fallen 5.6 percent in the past two years.
There was also a decrease in sales tax revenues by 40 percent between 2007 and 2008 in certain small commercial areas.
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