New York’s Credit Outlook Raised to Positive by S&P on Budgets

New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed through two consecutive on-time state budgets for the first time since 2006, had its credit outlook raised to positive by Standard & Poor’s.

The rating company said in a report today that it was revising from stable the state’s AA rating on general-obligation debt. Cuomo also has restrained Medicaid spending growth, cut school funding costs and instituted a pension overhaul that boosted the retirement age to 63 from 62 for new workers, S&P said in an e-mailed statement.

“We base the outlook revision on what we view as the state’s movement toward structurally balanced budgets in the past two years,” David Hitchcock, an S&P analyst, said in the statement.

S&P said its rating on New York, whose 19.4 million residents make it the third-most-populous U.S. state, could be raised if it produces balanced budgets over the next two years. Josh Vlasto, a Cuomo spokesman, declined to comment immediately.

The outlook revision is the latest victory for Cuomo since the 54-year-old Democrat took office in 2011. In addition to the balanced budgets, he has pushed through a divided Legislature a bill legalizing same-sex marriage and a property-tax cap.

To contact the reporters on this story: Freeman Klopott in Albany, New York, at fklopott@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net