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– News about Quincy Massachusetts from Quincy Quarry News

Quincy’s peerless mayor officially announced yet another reelection bid, something that has long been expected by Quincy Quarry as well as most of its ever-growing legions of loyal readers.

Generalissimo el Jefe Alcade Tomas P. Koch
A Quincy Quarry Photoshop Phun Team meme

About the only surprise was that he delayed the announcement that he was running yet again for a full week after papers could be pulled to run in this year’s local office elections.

After all, such has long been a foregone expectation.

For but one telling tell that he could be running, he has been spending an eye-popping $10,000 a month since May of last year with a small social media buzz shop that per Office of Campaign and Political Finance data has never before been retained to assist with the campaign of any not a federal office candidate in the Commonwealth. 

Then again, the $110,000 paid for buzz to date is bupkis for someone who has repeatedly spend upwards of three quarters of a million dollar on reelection bids, spending that has very much been funded by developers, other special interests, and shaking down city employees.

As also only to be expected, the local weekly tabloid offered up the most hagiographic paean about the mayor as one could only reasonably expect.

Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch presenting his FY 2024 City Budget
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Conveniently overlooked by the local tabloid include failing to note that Mayor Koch has averaged annual budget increases running roughly twice the rate of inflation.

At the same time, however, school spending has only but perhaps kept pace with inflation whereas all other koched-up city spending has increased by roughly three times the rate of inflation.

Also overlooked is how the city’s debt load has at least tripled during his tenure as mayor with hundreds of millions more in debt variously in the works.

Further, while speaking of the city’s finances, the City of Quincy’s credit rating was cut a couple of years ago.  Not that any proper public acknowledgement of same has happened.

What happens with Quincy taxpayers’ money
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Additionally, Koch has drained the city’s Stabilization Fund (a.k.a., Rainy Day Fund) down to roughly but a bit more than a tenth of the recommitted Best Practices level so that he could use these funds to mitigate local annual property tax increases that would have otherwise been required to fund his profligate spending.

In total, Koch has thus taken down various city reserve fund accounts by upwards of $25 million in just the two most recent fiscal years.

And for but one example of his free-spending ways, the roughly $300 million he has spent in total on this and that within the Quincy Center redevelopment special tax district in the hope that sufficient development will come to Quincy Center.

Mayor Koch and his financial planning team
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This special tax district that is supposed to cover the debt service for the roughly $240 million in local debt financed funding for $300 million of the spending to date is looking likely to run upwards of several million in the red this year, probably even next year, as well as likely pretty much more ugly yet going forward for many years yet to come.

The reason?

Mayor Koch has long relied upon, if not also as become addicted to, the use of short term low interest rates loans that are both no more as well as not likely to return anytime soon.

In turn, such will so force taxpayers citywide to have to pony up to cover the shortfall,

Finally crapping out on bad bets?
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So what, apparently, for the fact that Mayor Koch long touted that his so-called plans for a New Quincy Center would instead provide tax relief for long-suffering local property taxpayers.

Even more problematic, Mayor Koch has relied on short term low interest borrowing to initially low teaser rate finance upwards of a couple hundred million or more in additional borrowings for other of his free-spending projects with at least tens of million more in debt in the pipeline which will further hose local taxpayers.

In turn, figure on short term interest expense to pop by upwards of a handful of millions of dollars in Mayor Koch’s soon to be unveiled Fiscal Year 2024 budget with liklely more, if not a lot more to hit te fab in further fiscal year budgets.

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