OPINION — The nation’s credit rating agencies just provided another compelling reason to elect Raoul Zubia to the city council.
Led by Councilman Barry Graham, a short-sighted city council majority defunded our Advanced Purified Recycled Water program. This dealt a dual blow to our community, undermining our physical water security and placing a direct target on Scottsdale’s coveted AAA bond rating — the premium status that keeps local taxes low.
Credit rating agencies like Fitch Ratings and S&P Global look far beyond cash reserves when grading municipal health; they heavily weight resource resilience. Analysts will now systematically penalize cities overly dependent on a single, depleting source like the shrinking Colorado River.
