The City of Vicksburg is not allowed to borrow money because it has been without a bond rating, similar to a credit score for an individual, for six months.

City officials did not announce publicly that the bond rating was pulled by Moody’s Investors Services on Feb. 15, but the information surfaced this week in budget hearings as the city seeks to refinance $6 million in loans, the balances remaining on bond issues floated in 2003 and 2007.

State and local governments borrow money through bonds for public works projects and to refinance loans. A city’s bond rating gives people who want to buy the bonds — loaning their money for profitable return through interest paid by the borrower — an idea of the city’s financial situation, or its ability to pay off the bonds. Without a bond rating, governments are unable to borrow money.

In pulling the city’s A-1 rating, Moody’s, a New York-based provider of credit ratings and risk analysis, cited insufficient financial information on the city’s creditworthiness because Vicksburg did not have completed 2008, 2009 and 2010 audits.

“We’re current on our information, now,” Mayor Paul Winfield said Thursday. “We’re going to ask Moody’s to give us a new rating when we issue the call for the refinancing. It’s going to cost us about $9,500 to be re-rated. I believe we might get a Aa or an A rating.”

The city’s 2008 audit was completed in April and the 2009 audit was presented to the board in May. The 2010 audit is expected to be completed in September, and the 2011 audit by the end of October.

The city wants to consolidate the remainder of a $5.8 million bond issue passed in 2003 and a $16.9 million bond issue passed in 2007.

The 2003 bond issue was used for utilities improvements and to install electronic gas and water meters.

The 2007 loan included money for the Washington Street bridge, street improvements and developing the first phase of the sports complex on Fisher Ferry Road. The city later took $3.7 million from the $4.1 million allocated for Fisher Ferry and moved it to pay for work on the bridge.

Winfield said Thursday he might try to present the refinancing proposal at Monday’s board meeting, but the aldermen who sit with him believe the board needs to spend more time researching the proposal before taking action.

“We need to see if we can get a rating, and it’s all about timing,” South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said. “We need to be careful.”

“There’s a lot of avenues we need to consider, and we haven’t looked at them all,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “We’ve already missed on the payment period (on the bonds). We may have to wait until next month. You’ve got to be real careful with bond issues and make sure you’ve got everything covered. If you’re not careful, a bond issue can blow up in your face.”