Briefs: S&P keeps Maryland’s AAA; Bongino in Discovery documentary

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An S&P analyst has told Maryland officials the firm will take “no action” on the state’s current AAA bond rating given just last month, Treasurer Nancy Kopp announced.

In a statement issued Monday night, the rating agency, which had just downgraded U.S. Treasury bonds, said:

“A minority of state and local obligors rated by Standard & Poor’s have achieved the highest long-term rating of ‘AAA’. We expect that many of these obligors, particularly those with relatively low levels of funding interdependencies with the federal government or those that, in our view, are likely to manage declines in federal funding without weakening their credit profile, should be able to retain ratings above the U.S. sovereign rating.”

Kopp said: “We are pleased to see that Standard & Poor’s is looking at the states individually, and we believe that Maryland’s prudent fiscal management will be viewed positively by the rating agencies as they review the states.”

All three rating agencies maintained Maryland’s triple-A for last month’s bond sale, which achieved some of the lowest interest rates in decades.

Dan Bongino

Dan Bongino, a Republican challenging U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin in 2012, talks about his candidacy.

Bongino filming Discovery Channel documentary on the Secret Service

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino is in Los Angeles this week filming a documentary about the Secret Service, where he spent 12 years, including service as head of the presidential protection detail.

“We’re very excited,” said campaign manager Karla Graham. The channel is “very interested” in his decision to leave the Secret Service in May to become a political candidate. The documentary could air in the fall.

MarylandReporter.com wrote about and taped Bongino last month.

Bongino has already gained national media interest in his campaign because of his unusual background. Graham said Bongino would discuss more details of the documentary at Sunday’s annual picnic by former GOP Chairman Jim Pelura, where Bongino will be the special guest.

–Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

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