THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Just like everyone else, the state of Virginia wants to keep a good credit rating.

To that end, Gov. Bob McDonnell and several staff members and legislators will be going to New York next month to meet with the bond rating agencies that determine the state's credit rating.

The group plans a one-day series of meetings with S&P, Fitch and Moody's.

McDonnell said he has heard nothing that would indicate the state's treasured AAA bond rating is in jeopardy. But, he said, he has never met with the agencies, and wants to explain to them face-to-face the positives he sees in Virginia's financial situation.

"I want them to have confidence in what we're doing," McDonnell said this week in an interview. "I know they constantly review Virginia's finances. I want to be able to talk to them personally about how dramatically our finances have improved."

Like many states, Virginia has suffered financially from the recession, but it has done better than many.

The AAA bond rating is something state lawmakers and officials have long valued. It's the highest rating available, and having it allows Virginia to borrow money at lower rates. It also sends a signal that the state is considered financially stable and well-managed.

The rating was in some danger back in 2004, when the ballooning cost of the car tax cut and an imbalance between revenue and spending prompted Moody's and other agencies to put Virginia on its watch list.

The threat helped prompt legislators and then-Gov. Mark Warner to approve a package that raised some taxes (although it lowered others), earning them the ire of many Republicans.

The bond agencies kept Virginia's AAA bond rating that year.

McDonnell said he wants to explain to the rating agencies how his plan to shore up the state workers' retirement system will work. He said underfunded pension plans are something that troubles the agencies, and he plans to tell them how his proposal--which would require state workers to pay into the retirement fund for the first time since 1983--will help ease the retirement system's growing problem with underfunding.

"I want to go up there and make sure they are well aware of our changes that should improve our standing, but we're not aware of any concerns that they've got," McDonnell said.