Gov. Mark Sanford’s trip to New York on Wednesday to discuss the state’s credit rating is causing waves in the General Assembly.

Sanford and state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom met with analysts from Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s about the possibility the state’s prized Triple-A credit rating could be downgraded.

Sanford says the credit-rating agencies are worried about the state’s depleted trust funds. He repeatedly has urged lawmakers to restore those funds in next year’s budget, now under debate in the General Assembly.

But some lawmakers say Sanford is making the problem worse by harping on it.

“If he continues to stir the pot, it will cost us our credit rating,” said House Ways and Means chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. “The state has got to be presenting a united front.”

Harrell says he and Senate Finance chairman Hugh Leatherman wanted Sanford to delay the trip for a week so they could attend.

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the trip already had been rescheduled once and needed to be made before a budget for next year is passed in a few weeks.

In letters earlier this year, the two credit-rating agencies raised concerns about the state’s overall fiscal health and questioned Sanford’s plan to cut income taxes. That could take too much money out of state coffers, the credit-rating agencies said.

The agencies said the state should restore its “reserve funds,” but did not single out trust funds. Trust funds are for specific purposes and are different from the state’s rainy-day general reserve and capital reserve funds.

Sanford said more than $360 million should be spent to restore trusts like the Barnwell nuclear and Pinewood hazardous waste trusts, which were depleted during tight budget years.

Budget proposals passed by the House and Senate propose putting $117 million into various trusts.

Colleen Woodell, a managing director at Standard and Poor’s who attended Wednesday’s meeting, would not specifically address the trust fund issue when contacted Thursday.

“What we encouraged is that they return to financial balance. How they get there is a policy decision,” Woodell said.

The odds that more money will be restored to the trusts by the General Assembly are slim.

Leatherman said he wants to see a letter from the credit agencies about trust fund replenishment before he’ll even consider it.

“I’m not saying I doubt what the governor says, but I’d like to see it in writing,” he said.

Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com.