Moody's Reaffirms AAA Ratings For Fairfax County

, Moody's Investor Service reaffirmed the AAA bond rating of Fairfax County and several other area jurisdictions.

But the investor service is keeping all of those municipalities "on a negative outlook," signifying they could experience a possible downgrade in the coming years.

Other jurisdictions affected include Vienna, Fairfax County Water, Prince William County, Arlington County, Alexandria and Prince William County, among others. 

Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Friday night. It is unclear what the downgrade will mean for Fairfax County at this time.

Moody's representatives plan to meet with Fairfax County officials in the coming weeks so they can defend their financial status.

"Their decision to assign a negative outlook to the county’s rating is based primarily on the link to the U.S. government in terms of federal contracts/federal employment, and does not reflect on the continuing strength and good fiscal management of Fairfax County," Fairfax County spokesperson Merni Fitzgerald said. "We will have the opportunity to meet with Moody's to provide more specific information about Fairfax County and its diversified economy."

Fitzgerald said the negative outlook wouldn't change the way the county does business.

"Fairfax County has a strong history of taking decisive actions to meet its financial obligations. It has weathered projected deficits, taken programmatic reductions and eliminated positions to ensure an annual balanced budget," Fitzgerald said. "There are no plans to change the way major projects are financed; this situation will be addressed by monitoring the situation and making adjustments as the markets respond."

In a call with more than 12,000 of his Northern Virginia constituents Thursday night, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly said residents shouldn't be worried about cuts because most of the area's contractors are not involved in military manufacturing, but instead, on cybersecurity, research, development and advanced technology "that will be in greater demand as the Pentagon shrinks.”