Chairman Patrick Foye said the designation will better position the authority to cope with the revenue loss from the coronavirus pandemic.
The authority, which Moody’s dropped to A2 from A1, seeks a further $4 billion from Washington and has paused its capital program.
Fitch follows Moody's in revising the Empire State's debt to negative from stable.
New York’s new state budget provides flexibility to deal with near-term revenue hits from COVID-19, but it has little bandwidth to withstand a deep recession.
Negative outlooks trigger questions about other reeling areas in the capital markets crosshairs.
Municipal bond issuance was $67.88 billion after the first two months of 2020 and was on pace to easily eclipse the $400 billion mark — then COVID-19 completely turned the market upside down.
The rating agency, citing severe ridership drops from COVID-19, dropped its rating to A-minus from A. It assigns a negative outlook.
Despite rising 3% in 2019, DiNapoli expects bonuses to drop this year.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released updated state revenue projections.
The comptroller, citing projected losses in entertainment and tourism while the city is virtually closed, called for a savings target of 4% of tax levy-funded agency spending.