Quincy Quarry Weekly Fish Wrap: Double for nothing?

— News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

Foisting fairy tales yet again
An old Facebook photo

Quincy Quarry Weekly Fish Wrap: Double for nothing?

Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s latest ask for millions of dollars in taxpayer-backed debt has upped his game by formally asking for hundreds of millions this week.

In fact, his ask was for a breaking taking $475 million.

That and so tapping local taxpayers’ bank accounts by half a billion dollars as well as so pushing the total of outstanding city debt to close to a whole billion.

Amazingly, however, this time the ask was for a change not for yet another one of his Edifice Complexes.

Nothing up my sleeve …
A file photo

Rather, the ask is to fund a preemptive attempt to save his tukas from taking hits should the City of Quincy end up in Chapter 9 at some point down the road care of both his free-spending ways as well as his intertwined continuing adherence to Kochonomics.

This by far record-breaking ask has been tendered so as to protect city employees’ pension benefits and thus also the mayor’s pension as he has never had a real job, much less dined anywhere other than at the public trough.

Follow the money. ALWAYS follow the money
An oycom.com image

That and concurrently endeavoring to kick the can of the cost of making the city pension fund whole out over twice as many years and at who only knows what interest costs.

The $475 million ask also looks to be bailing out both Quincy College to the tune of upwards of $25 million or more that the college is underwater on covering its at least assumed to be obligation to cover its own pension funding obligations via its tuition revenue instead of by dumping the funding shortfall onto local taxpayers.

Gone but not forgotten …
A Steward Health Care image

It would further appear that the same grift may also be slated to bailout at least some of the supposed to be fully operating revenue-funded independent and so-called “Enterprise Fund” accounted municipal operations.

These units include the Water Department, the Sewer Department, the Quincy Housing Authority, and whatever pension obligations may linger from the now-long gone days of a municipal Quincy Hospital. 

And yes as well as only to be expected, the formal ask went up by 19% from the original “only” $400 million figure originally floated to be raised by floating yet another local municipal bond issue.

Tax dollars up in smoke
A cheat-sheet.com image

In short, in for a nickel, why not thrown in another seventy-five million?

Other worrisome problems include that not only is this $475 million ask ultimately premised upon how the mostly Team Koch-laden city pension board might finally proving itself to be less than aces managing the pension fund investments after over a decade of not doing so but also that Mayor Koch’s solution to resolve things is to give them roughly 127% more money to mismanage in the meanwhile.

Not to worry – it’s not like it’s my money
A ThePeoplesVoice.org graphic image

In short, Kochonomics happens.

Again, again, and yet again even more.

Even worse, it would appear that local taxpayers could still be on the hook for any future pension funding shortfalls if the pension board continues to show itself to be amateurs when it comes to investing many hundreds of millions of dollars.

In other words, count on it.

But not to worry – both the mayor as well as city employees would likely be at least relatively secure as regards their receiving pension checks during their golden years as well as preferably somewhere warm.

Enough already
A file photo

So what, apparently, for the fact that the local taxpayers who will be primarily funding the supposed to be self-funded city employee pensions all but invariably do not themselves enjoy the security of a variously guarantee defined benefit pension plan, much less one which typically also throws in inflation payout adjustments from time to time even if such was not a given under the City of Quincy’s pension plan obligations.

Again: Kochonomics happens.

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