#QuincyMayorThomasKoch Fails To Provide A Sense Of His Likely To Be #ConsiderableFiscalYear2026BudgetIncrease

Image via ImgFlip.com

— Quincy Massachusetts News by Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary

“Friends, Roman( Catholic)s, Kochonuts …”
A Facebook photo

In a recent issue of the local weekly tabloid, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch prattled on and on and on even more yet about how next month he will be presenting what was posed will be a “restrained” Fiscal Year 2026 budget even if no hints of glints of merely but general sorts of metrics were mentioned at this late date so that taxpayers might have an idea what to expect for their 2026 property tax bills.

Instead, no sense of expectations of the change from Fiscal Year 2025 spending was tendered given claims of unknowns care of the upheaval in Washington DC and how things are knowm to play out on Beacon Hill.

In short, don’t blame me, don’t blame thee, blame someone else who is somewhere else.

So what for the fact that what happens in DC and on Beacon Hill typically have but modest at most impact on the City of Quincy’s annual budgets as compared to their potential range of possible impacts upon local infrastructure projects via grant funding.

A Koch Problem bumper sticker graphic image

Even so, there are two unarguable as well as large elephants in the room as regards clearly long known as well as considerable increases in two major areas of city spending come the upcoming new fiscal year.

One is personal expense given a 3% pay increase for rank and file city employees driven by the terms of the third and final year of three year union contracts that expire at the end of June.  As such, contract negotiations are needed to set new union agreements to commence come the start of Fiscal Year 2026 come the fast approaching first of July.

Picketing teachers during previous negotiations
A Quincy Quarry News exclusive file photo

Needless to say, given serious inflation over the course the past three years, such will surely see both union members and their contract negotiators pressing hard for catch-up level raises.

Granted, with no contracts yet to be reached, how much salary budget lines will go up is unknown, however, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue requires that in such circumstances a reasonable reserve projection must be incorporated into a municipality’s budget.

Next up, it is already known that city debt service will be going up as per the Koch Maladministration’s usual but with a twist.

The twist that will be imposed to local taxpayer’s knickers?

An over 120% increase to the city’s principal paydown debt service expense from FY 2025 outlays, an increase that has for months to even years as well as known down to the penny.

Such a deal, dealing from the bottom — whatever
A Cassius Marcellus Coolidge image

he reason for the increase?

Primarily care of how no principal paydown was made in the first three years of the payoff the $475 million pension obligation bond issued by the city to cover the city’s formerly among the most woefully underfunded municipal employee pension funds in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In short, think basically a variation on a teaser rate and no early years principal paydown on the front end of a balloon payments subprime mortgage circa 2007 or thereabouts.

And speaking of thereabouts, figure on roughly a $27 million principle balloon payment hitting the fan during FY 2026.

Net/net, long suffering locals should thus not be surprised if the mayor’s  proposed FY 2026 budget goes up by upwards of 10% from his FY 2025 spending absent serious cuts to local services when his budget is rolled out next month.

In turn, if the proposed spending increase for the upcoming fiscal year is in the neighborhood of 10%, it will be the second time in three years for such an outsized increase, not to mention that further similar enough pain is already pretty much lined up for most of the rest of the decade.

QQ disclaimer