Kamenetz: County 'A Little More Protected' From Fiscal Cliff

The possible fall over the so-called federal government fiscal cliff will have little affect on Baltimore County, according to Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

"Fortunately for us, less than 10 percent of our employment base is federal," said Kamenetz during a Dec. 2 appearance on WBAL TV. "We think that because of the baby boomer generation, as they retire, we're a little more protected with that kind of employment."

[The station doesn't allow other sites to embed its video so you can watch it here.]

Kamenetz also pointed to the recent ratings of three bond rating houses—Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's—as reassurance that the county can ride out the potiential sharp reductions of the federal budget that could take effect after Jan. 1.

"Of course they take into account the so-called fiscal cliff and the affect on Baltimore County's finances and nevertheless they reaffirmed our triple Triple-A bond rating," Kamenetz said.

Moody's, which is perhaps the more conservative of the three ratings, placed the county on a negative watch because of the issues surrounding federal budget negotiations.

In June, the bond rating agency pointed to the number of federal jobs in the county calling it a "significant presence."

Baltimore County is the second largest employment base in the state with about 361,400 jobs. Of those, 16 percent of related to government including 5 percent that are federal jobs, according to the report by Moody's Investors Service.

"Moody's believes that the county's rating could be affected by a downgrade of
the US government's rating," the service stated in it's last two reports from this year.