Virginia once had an entire political party based on the idea that debt should be "re-adjusted" rather than paid off.
"Virginia is still a very debt-sensitive state and has debt-sensitive politics," says John Milliken at George Mason University.
The Readjusters went heavily into debt in the 1880s financing public education and public services. The pendulum swung in the opposite direction with the Byrd Machine philosophy of pay-as-you-go.
"The tradeoffs between going into debt and education still play out in the legislature, says Milliken. "And I think there's more interest currently in spending the additional funds, particularly for things like education."
David Bieri at Virginia Tech says states are taking the opposite approach of federal and local governments, which rely heavily on debt spending.
"With the fiscal imbalances that we're seeing both at the federal and municipal levels," Bieri says, "states for the last 40 years have been running this balanced budget approach and are extremely conservative, fetishizing almost the good rating over what the public might need."
In a written statement, Governor Abigail Spanberger says the triple A credit rating proves Virginia is "fiscally sound and ready to meet any future challenges."
