Your Voices Were Heard!
May 23, 2008
To Everyone Who Contributed To This Blog
Thanks for you support and contributions. I hope you found this blog to be a useful tool for public dialogue. The City budget was ammended last night after a compromise was proposed by the Mayor’s Office and Councillors Coughlin and Gutro rescinded their original votes. What once was a 3 million dollar cut to the School budget is now a 1.5 million dollar cut. I wish it was more, but I think we can take great pride in knowing our voices were heard.
It appears the financial future of our city is uncertain at best. If you have suggestions for finding real solutions to our City’s financial challenges I will post them. This forum has proven to be an effective advocate for our schools and maybe… by putting our heads together, we can provide real cost saving solutions and revenue sources that elected officials haven’t considered. That being said, this blog will only entertain thoughtful solutions and comments.
I look forward to our ongoing conversation!
Thanks, Kevin Mahoney
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1.
Chris Meyers | May 23, 2008 at 11:05 pm
A revenue idea… establish an Enterprise Account for parking fines as is done in Cambridge. All fine proceeds are deposited into the enterprise account which also self funds the people resources to issue the parking tickets. By focusing on consistent and agressive enforcement of parking regulations, not only would additional revenue be generated but it would significantly improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. I have suggested this idea to the city for years but no mayor has even wanted to deal with the parking issues in a real way. Mayor Koch here’s your opportunity to be a leader!
2.
paulunion | May 26, 2008 at 10:30 am
I’d like to thank Kevin Mahoney for setting up this blog. I’d only caution that people who think it was a temporary problem that was confronted are missing the point. Many of us feel as if 100 bucks was demanded of us, later lowered to 50, and we’re supposed to feel happy…and lucky.
Two concerns. The idea that we need to have savings (reserves) to pay debt service when the high school bills come in is worrisome. Do you need to save in advance to pay your mortgage bills? And if you do, is it possible that your mortgage is too large? The problem is not likely to go away soon. Prepare to fight for a “debt exclusion” override…and if you think that’d be easy inQuincy…
Second, if you think this round was a struggle, imagine what would occur if the referendum abolishing the income tax passes. Wiping our 47% of state revenues means that Chapter 70 aid, part of the small “discretionary spending” the state does, would, logically, disappear. Try cutting THAT out of our local school budget. Quincy gets about $26 Million in local aid from the state, about $15 million in Chapter 70 (education) aid.
Thanks to all who support public education in Quincy. It really is a remarkable school system and we need to keep it that way. Our kids deserve no less.
Thanks again!
3.
paulunion | May 26, 2008 at 10:32 am
That should have been “wiping ouT 47% of state revenues.”