Quincy Quarry Weekly Fishwrap: 2017 Quincy property tax bills a lump of coal

Something is rotten in the Q
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– News about Quincy from and commentary by Quincy Quarry News

Quincy Quarry Weekly Fishwrap:  2017 Quincy residential property tax bills a lump of coal for homeowners this holiday season.

For the most part, things continue relatively quiet in Quincy during the year-end holiday season, although there have been some interesting inside baseball sorts of events involving the Q for those who keep score.

For example, a favored city contractor, Koch campaign committee contributor and Office of Campaign and Political Finance-fined contributor to the Koch campaign committee appears to have now gotten itself into the trouble with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for its apparently less than up to snuff storage of construction waste in a flood zone area that is also right next to an environmentally sensitive waterway that empties into the harbor.

Dump site mess
A QQ Citizen Environmentalist file photo

The good news: the mess was quickly cleaned up after the Department of Environmental Protection was contacted.

The bad news: it will likely take weeks, if not months, to discern if and what sanctions and corrective actions may be imposed.

And speaking of imposed, this week Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch yet again hit long-suffering local homeowners with another property tax increase and which again is roughly several times the rate of inflation.

The only good news is that the close to 6.8% average residential property tax bill increase could have been worse: his original plan was for a roughly 8.5% increase – such a deal! – given a rare instance of pushback by a usually supine City Council.

“What, me worry?”
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

The bad news: the way the modest trimming to a still ugly rate of increase roughly three times the rate of inflation was implemented in a manner that may come back to haunt.

As such, expect Quincy Quarry to exposé it if it does. 

That and continue to exposé other curious doings in the Q in the meanwhile.

After all, Quincy Quarry isn’t ranked first by Google as the top-ranked source for news about Quincy without ample good reasons!

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