Moody’s downgrades fiscally troubled La Marque, Texas

Monetary woes in La Marque, Texas, led to a two-notch downgrade of its issuer ranking from Moody’s Rankings to A3 from A1. 

Moody’s motion, introduced late on Friday, adopted final month’s downgrade to A-plus from AA-minus by S&P World Rankings. Each businesses positioned the decrease scores on assessment for potential additional downgrades.

Administrative turnover within the metropolis of about 20,000 — south of Houston in Galveston County — together with a declining and slim monetary place and restricted flexibility to boost property taxes to help operations, had been cited by Moody’s.

“The ranking is underneath assessment for potential additional downgrade, given the potential for additional monetary deterioration and uncertainty on a path to revive monetary well being,” it stated in a ranking report.

In a press release on Monday, town stated it’s conscious of the ranking change and is working “to deal with the cited areas.”

La Marque, which delayed Sept. 1 debt service funds for normal obligation bonds till Sept. 10 because of workers transitions, began to take steps final month to stabilize its funds.

Town council lowered spending by about $900,000 within the fiscal 2026 price range it handed, together with the next upkeep and operations property tax charge anticipated to boost about $340,000.

Final week, Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton ordered La Marque and three different cities to halt their “doubtlessly unlawful” tax hikes after complaints had been filed together with his workplace alleging the cities didn’t file their annual monetary audits inside 180 days of the top of their fiscal years.