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Quincy Massachusetts News, Opinion, and Commentary by Quincy Quarry News
Your winnings sir
A Warner Brothers masterpiece
As we all head into the Thanksgiving weekend, the Quincy Quarry News new crew is thinking about seconds and thirds.
Especially for mincemeat pie.
The newsroom is also relocating over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and thus Quarry stories will so be muted for awhile.
Plus, it is has been relatively quiet of late as regards grifting inside of City Hall.
Even so, the sharks are already taking bites out of local hackers.
Special interests going for what they want
a ThePeoplesVoice.org graphic image
The key grift?
Extending the ground lease for the ground underneath the deluxe high end golf complex in the Quarry Hills.
As could only be expected — in Quincy anyway, the plan is a sweet deal for the well-connected and generous to the campaign fund accounts of the usual suspects.
A wicked sweet deal as well as which has dissected by Quincy Quarry News as arguably an even sweeter deal for the operators of the gold course than their ridiculous ask of a couple of years ago.
In other words, the real Quincy Way.
In particular, chowing on already hard-pressed taxpayers.
“Look, the residential property tax increase is not that painful.”
A file photo
To this end, local taxpayers will find out next Monday how hard they are going to be whacked with property tax bills come the New Year.
Needless to say, expect the usual koch and mirrors when the Koch Machine presents its presentation of how the impending 2025 property tax increases are not going all that bad after the over 8% property tax increase for homeowners this year.
In the meanwhile,do keep it in mind that Quincy Quarry News has already predicting the residential property tax increase for local homeowners after successfully projecting the over 8% increase in 2024.
The Lord Mayor will probably dust off the tired old saw about how the tax rate isn’t as high as it could be. That, of course, is little more than a veiled threat.
Here, however, is a classic Koch line of BS: “I love Christmas and we do it up big.” That’s his statement about the Quincy Christmas Parade. He fails to note, however, that Christmas came early and BIG for him and the rubber-stampers on the City Council — they gave themselves the gift of outrageous raises, a gift that will keep on giving, even after these grifters are retired. Maybe it should be considered a gift that keeps on taking — from already beleaguered taxpayers.
My taxes keep going up and the roads keep getting worse. Some things we need like a new police station and other things we don’t need like buying out the IHOP. We also didn’t need all that debt for Quincy Center. The once grand plan presented 20 years ago for Quincy center has cost more and only produced a fraction of the original plan.
Taxes are going to keep going up primarily because of roughly $400m in debt incurred to spend in Quincy Center AND pay off $475m in debt incurred to bailout out the pension fund for most city employees given dubious management of the pension fund during Koch’s tenure in office.
The Calendar Year 2025 increases will likely only run in the 3% to 4.5% range after an over 8% on average increase this year. Unfortunately, on the order of upwards of 8% is pretty much baked in for CY 2026 given debt service machinations by Mayor Koch with ugly sure to follow for the rest of the 2020’s.
As for redeveloping Quincy Center, its sound plan in the mid-2000’s has been steadily undercut to accommodate favored peeps such that the plan is now that of basically a camel designed by a committee.
Of particular concern, the redevelopment of Quincy Center was supposed to be self-funding. Instead, the Koch Administration has had to acknowledge that instead things are going to run tens of millions in the read with a very real chance of running 9 figures in the red per the Quarry’s review and local taxpayers are going to have to cover.
Also a problems are Mayor Koch’s spending stupid money on other projects.
For but one example from among many, does the under construction new police headquarters need costly curved dormers in its roof and the use of seriously expensive copper roofing?
Mayor Koch thinks taxpayers are his rafter of turkeys to use as he pleases. How can King Koch or any of the fools on the City Council think they are worth a raise? This is the worst run City in the state. Hell, Springfield does better. Our roads, City budget Downtown and just about every other city service is broken.
Yet they really think that they do a good job. They must all be down at the Fore River Bridge Rotary Cannabis shop on a daily basis. The Emperor has no clothes and the clowns that call themselves Councillors should be hanged, drawn, and then quartered. And yet they wonder why locals don’t smile at them in the streets. Why not? Because we are being fleeced by them.
It’s time for ALL new councillors and a new mayor who will open the books and let us see how bad off we are. After all, when was the last time a Councilor questioned and/or voted down a spending request? I recall Anne Mahoney doing so, but the rest are in lock step. What does the Mayor have on these people? Must be some real bad film ….
Very interesting on Friday night when Mark the Hack Cary introduced Koch at the lighting of the City’s Christmas Tree. The applause was muted and a smattering of boos could be heard. Further telling, city councilors were missing with the exception of one who was spotted darting through thru crowd with a very uncomfortable look on his face.
I would anticipate a similar response as they walk the parade route on Sunday. All and all, such is justified as the city has been disgraced by the obscene raises that the State Ethics Commission has iced along with the out of control local property increases due to Koch’s profligate budgets that the council refuses to make a single budget cut.
This week’s edition, ominously titled “The Water Is Not Fine,” takes a deep dive (pun fully intended) into Quincy’s latest aquatic misadventure. Spoiler: it’s not about a revitalized beachfront. Nope, it’s about everything from mysterious algae blooms to that ever-present Eau de Low Tide aroma wafting through the city.
Apparently, while some cities are solving real problems, Quincy’s water scene remains a mix of murky puddles and bureaucratic finger-pointing. The report didn’t say if the city council plans to blame the moon’s gravitational pull or just declare, “We’re working on it,” for the 17th year running.
Between this and the usual infrastructure follies, Quincy’s motto might as well be, “We put the ‘eh’ in waterfront.”
Maybe next week’s wrap will come with a scratch-n-sniff page to really complete the experience? Until then, I’ll keep my kayak at the ready and my expectations lower than the Neponset River’s water level at low tide.