COLUMBIA, S.C. - The state's top financial leaders met Tuesday with analysts from three major credit rating agencies that help decide how risky it is lend South Carolina money through bonds.

The meeting was intended to bolster confidence in the state's finances.

That confidence has been rattled during the past year, most notably in July, when the state's AAA credit rating, the highest ranking given, was lowered to AA-plus by Standard and Poor's. The other two firms, Moody's and Fitch have told the state and bondholders that South Carolina is being watched closely.

The state's wants S&P to restore the vaunted AAA rating and to assure other credit watchers that the state's economy is growing fast and its finances are in order. That comes despite the state having the distinction of having one of the nation's highest unemployment rates and ongoing rifts about income tax breaks Gov. Mark Sanford wants.

The five members of the state Budget and Control Board - all on hand for the meeting - won't have to wait long. The state's sells bonds again next month, giving credit agencies a chance to alter their outlook on the state's debt.

Sanford and Commerce Secretary Bob Faith told analysts the state's economy has been battered by textile job losses. But they pointing out the state's economy is changing and growing fast.

"Where we're going," Sanford said, is "to a place where we have higher paying jobs and more of them."

Faith said that in 2004, employers created more jobs than at any time since 1991 and that businesses invested more than in any year since 1997.

Economists pointed to flaws in federal statistics that paint a distorted picture of the state, particularly on the unemployment front.

Some of the data "vastly understate job growth throughout the country and particularly in the South," Mark Vitner, a Wachovia Corp. senior economist, told the analysts.The high unemployment numbers don't jibe with other data showing income and housing sales growth, he said.

And economic data showing the state gained a total of just 11,400 non-farm jobs last years "just isn't right," Vitner said. "Charleston gained 11,000 jobs just by itself in the last year," he said.

Staff at the state Board of Economic Advisors has been working with the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics to find ways to correct how data is gathered and reported, Bill Gillespie, the state's chief economist, told the analysts.

While the state's chief financial leaders put on a unified front for the analysts, they remain divided on income tax breaks.

Sanford, the Budget and Control Board's chairman, says he'll continue to push plans to reduce the state's top income tax rate. But credit analysts worried about the $1 billion loss of state revenues that comes with it. Ultimately, the Legislature approved a break affecting only small business owners.

"Some of you all were critical of the idea of cutting the income tax," Sanford told the analysts. "We think it's absolutely key" given the state's need to compete internationally, Sanford said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, both board members, say Sanford's income tax cut won't come anytime soon.

Standard & Poor's analysts have shown the most concern about the income tax break. Leatherman said he would write them and assure them Sanford's income tax proposal is a nonstarter as long as it threatens the state's credit rating. "I don't care if it's this year, next year or ever," Leatherman said.

Cooper said legislators will be working on a more pressing issue instead: lowering property taxes for homeowners.