Lower Bond Rating = Self Fulfilling prophacy?

The West Haven Voice had an interesting Editorial by Bill Riccio (dated 9/20 on the web site), in which Bill mused about a post made the prior week, where someone had wondered if the bond rating was a self-fulfilling prophacy. He (correctly, in my opinion) went on to state:

Mayor John Picard had expected the downgrade, based on the three reports listed above. He believed it was inevitable. Bond houses that have been duped into believing a municipality has a fund balance don’t suffer fools well when they find out differently. To insinuate the reports and the expectation coalesced into a given result is to ignore the facts.

While the Voice's reader had construed that perhaps because Mayor Picard was publicizing the issues that Moody’s and Standard and Poors lowered the bond rating, let's face it -- you can only rob Peter to pay Paul for so long - eventually, Peter starts shouting. The bond issues would have shown up eventually.