Topeka ? Two credit rating agencies said Friday that the state’s budget shortfall and a recent court ruling on school finance represent growing problems for the state that could affect its credit rating in the future.

Moody’s Investor Service said the Dec. 30 ruling is a “credit negative” for the state of Kansas, but a positive for its 286 school districts.

“The state is likely to appeal again, but the lower court’s recommendation comes at a particularly stressful time for state finances,” said Moody’s spokesman David Jacobson.

On Dec. 30, a three-judge panel in Topeka ruled for a second time that public schools in Kansas are unconstitutionally under-funded. And while the court did not order a remedy, it suggested that as much as $548 million in additional school funding could be required, or about 9 percent of the total state general fund.

That came at a time when the state was already confronting a projected $279 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year, and another $436 million deficit in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.

Combined with other factors, such as underfunding of the state pension system, the use of highway funds to pay for general fund expenditures and the fact that the state is not meeting its ending balance requirement, Moody’s said Kansas is now working with a “structural deficit” of about $1.26 billion, or 20 percent of the state’s current-year budget.

In November, Gov. Sam Brownback offered a plan to close this year’s budget gap, largely by transferring money from other funds into the state general fund and reducing for six months the state’s contributions into the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. Most of his plan requires legislative approval.

But Standard & Poor’s said Friday that those actions “do not appear to significantly address the mismatch between recurring revenues and expenditures.”

“Although Kansas will likely make adjustments to bring its general fund balance back to a marginally positive level at fiscal year-end 2015, we remain concerned about the one-time nature of most of the budget fixes, and the large fund balance drawdown on a budgetary accounting basis,” S&P said.

Both rating agencies downgraded the state’s credit rating in August 2014. The statements issued Friday do not constitute another downgrade, but they represent concerns both agencies have about issues that could affect future rating decisions.