Five and a half months after a state budget should have been enacted, the damage done by the stalemate is really adding up.

The latest fallout from the inability of Harrisburg's polarized negotiators to agree on a 2015-16 spending plan came from Standard & Poor's Rating Services, an agency that determines the credit- worthiness, and thus the interest rates, of borrowers.

S&P withdrew ratings for school districts and community colleges that were based on a state program that helps them get more favorable loan terms by guaranteeing repayment to their bondholders. In a damning note issued last week, the agency concluded that "Pennsylvania's state aid payments are no longer a reliable and stable source of funds."

The change could make it difficult, impossible or, at a minimum, more expensive for districts and community colleges to borrow money to keep their doors open until the Legislature and Gov. …