Over the weekend, the AJC reported that Moody’s had downgraded DeKalb’s general obligation bonds “from Aa3 to Aa1 and another $20 million in appropriation-backed debt from A1 to As2.”  (I’m not sure how to interpret that, since this Wiki entry shows that Aa1 is actually a higher rating than Aa3.)

Aa3 AND Aa1 still qualify as “High Grade” bonds, but this does mean that DeKalb will be paying more interest to bond holders going forward.  The downgrade was attributed to DeKalb having to dip into reserves to cover expenses the last two years, according to the AJC.

Conversely, a couple weeks back Decatur announced that Standard and Poor’s had upgraded Decatur’s bond rating to AA+.