Public Finance Division

California's Current Credit Ratings

Since the credit rating is assigned to a specific debt-security issued by the State of California, the current credit ratings are shown below by debt type:

The above are the highest quality debt instruments issued by the State of California and payable from the State's General Fund. The General Obligation (GO) bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the State of California. This is the credit rating people usually refer to when speaking on the subject of credit rating. (See History of California General Obligation Bond Credit Rating.) Certain GO bond are also backed by a dedicated revenue stream, and have separate ratings from those shown above.

The Tax-Exempt Commercial Paper (TXCP) are also full faith and credit obligations but are also backed by a line of credit from a group of large financial institutions. The Revenue Anticipation Notes (RANs) are backed by unapplied moneys in the General Fund. Since TXCP and RANs have maturities shorter than 1 year, they have short-term rating symbols.

The lease-purchase revenue bonds are not listed above, but they are generally backed by a State department's operating budget. As a result, their credit rating is generally half a step below the GO bond rating. For specific rating of your lease-purchase revenue bond, please call (800) 900-3873.

For credit rating definitions, please click the appropriate rating agency under Definitions of Credit Ratings on the Credit Rating Information page.

Comparison of Other State's General Obligation Bond Ratings