Syracuse, N.Y., Mayor Stephanie Miner has asked an outside expert to prepare a legal brief that explores the process and history of municipal bankruptcy in New York, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported on Saturday. Miner mentioned to a Wall Street Journal reporter last week that she asked for the memo. The published comment caught the attention of the people who rate municipal bonds, and the staff at Fitch Ratings called the mayor to ask why. It was serious enough that the credit rating agency reported to the public on Friday that the mayor was just requesting information and the city is not in immediate danger of filing bankruptcy. "We don't anticipate the city being anywhere near bankruptcy at least for a few years at the soonest and the mayor confirmed that," Fitch Director Eric Friedman said. "Bankruptcy is not imminent. The city is doing fine at the moment, but she wants to be smarter about things so that when she is having conversations about the potential control board, she knows how things work and the history of New York state."
