SPENDTHRIFT MAYOR SLY AND THE FREEWHEELING CITY COUNCIL PRESIDE OVER KANSAS CITY'S CREDIT COLLAPSE!!!
Bloomberg's Bizweek just picked up Kansas City's finances severely damaged because of so much loose spending . . .
Kansas City Outlook Revised to Negative by Fitch Over Debt Plan
“The additional debt layered on the already elevated debt burden may strain available resources,” James Mann, a Fitch senior director in New York, said today in a report, citing costs related to light rail and neighborhood revitalization projects. The city plans to spend $100 million on the transit system and to borrow $100 million a year through the next decade for rehabilitation work, according to Mann.
Kansas City's media was unwilling to call out the spending of Mayor Sly and the City Council . . .
NOW THERE'S A REALITY CHECK FROM THE FINANCIAL WORLD WHICH CLEARLY SHOWS THAT KANSAS CITY'S SPENDING IS OUT OF CONTROL UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF MAYOR SLY AND THE CITY COUNCIL!!!
Press conferences and hand holding with small market reporters isn't going to fix this one . . . This is THE BEGINNING OF KANSAS CITY FINANCIAL DISASTER AND SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN ALL OF THIS COWTOWN ARE ALREADY TALKING TO TKC ABOUT THIS ONE!!!
Money trumps politics. This should be a wake up call that just because we like this Mayor doesn't mean this town's financial future is sacrificed for an All-Star Game, expensive scotch, a Downtown Toy Train or a BILLION DOLLAR borrowing plan that could just be a gateway to more TIF.
Developing . . .
UPDATED:
Fitch changes KC credit outlook from stable to negative
Fitch sours outlook on Kansas City finances
Don't forget that the e-tax vote was mentioned in this summary as well. They didn't like the voting for our biggest revenue source.
ReplyDeleteI giggle when you make this stuff sound like doomsday. So they didn't downgrade us? Then who cares. Didn't these guys cause the mortgage crisis anyways? Seems to me they have gone from free wheelin' to the sky is falling in just a few years. I guess that's what happens when you are one of the causes of the Great Recession and want to forget that small fact.
ReplyDeletewho paid for the bowling shirts?
ReplyDeleteYOU did. And you'll be paying for the new streetcars and the downtown hotel too.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry too much. These are the same Wall Street monkey fuckers who caused the biggest economic collapse in history.
ReplyDeleteFunk wins.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get people out of cars (sprawl) and into transit (density). At that point there will be plenty of visitors to fill a new hotel.
ReplyDelete@9:27am
ReplyDeleteYes, hoping that downtown can somehow return to the glory years of the 1950s is a really good plan.
Maybe Sly and the gang will invest in a time machine, because that's what it will take!
right, as usual for this blog, the sky is falling
ReplyDeleteHey, Anonymous at 9:20 AM:
ReplyDeleteListen, dumb-fuck, if there was ANYTHING to this "Funk wins" nonsense, Funkhouser would at least still be IN KANSAS CITY, even if not in the Mayor's Office.
Instead, he ran out of town after he made himself (and fools like you) absolute laughing stocks locally AND nationally.
Funk wins. Funk was not promoting downtown hotels, downtown toy trains and $1 billion TIF scam. Funk wins.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone seen the City's press release on this important issue or do they only engage in happy talk.
ReplyDelete"PENSION UNDERFUNDING: In the aggregate, the city has not made its full annual pension cost (APC) to its pension plans for at least the past six years.
ReplyDeleteCONTINUED PENSION UNDERFUNDING: The city's inability or unwillingness to initiate a plan to increase aggregate funding of its annual pension liability would likely place downward pressure on the rating."
Wow, and yet Yael--who contributes nothing to his own pension at the Star--is quick to admonish the police pensions which the officers themselves personally contribute to out of each paycheck. The officers, apparently unlike the city, can't just skip out on paying into the pension because of other "obligations" like downtown trains, P&L District, Green Zone funding, Aim 4 Peace (still no conclusive results of success), etc, etc...
Old house sold, new house in different city bought. Would rather pay extra for gas to drive to KC if need be and pay for use of whatever KC has to offer than be in an unaccredited school district with taxes sky high and focus on building shiny new toys instead of considering the needs of the people who have to pay for them. Good luck with your build it and they will come plan. Peace out.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen this yet in the star and I'm kinda worried. This is the stuff they need to cover. Tony is cool and he's very persistent but he's right. This is important stuff. It requires more than bloggers in their pajamas.
ReplyDeleteFitch is the company that had AAA rated CDO from Credit Suisse lose $125 million dollars overnight. If their highest rating means nothing, what does their second highest rating mean?
ReplyDeleteFitch (French owned) might not be as bad as others, but their track record is abysmal. Why does anybody care about pronouncements from a company with a recent record of not knowing squat?
Biz Journal has provided coverage:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2012/02/29/james-infrastructure-plan-sours.html
City Manager / Mayor & Council don't look like they ave been smart with the money. Money quote from Fitch report "After adopting a balance budget for FY 2012, again only partially funding the pension plans, the city identified a $15 mm general fund budget gap as of midyear. Management anticipates eliminating the gap with cost containment, further extending its hiring freeze, and reduced capital spending..."
So how does the city have millions of funds to BAIL OUT Citidel Plaza and the Green Impact Zone
The Bail Out & misuse of taxpayer funds comments are right on target!
ReplyDeleteMayor Sly James & City Council are drunken sailors at a Vegas cat house.
When is the Mayoral appointed Municipal Revenue Commission going to speak up and provide guidance to our city leadership & cat house visitors? Maybe the mayor wasn't serious when he formed this committee and it was all for show while they spend taxpayer funds and drive us to the poor house?
- mister can you spare a billion?
Who gives a fuck what the ratings agencies say. Let's spend every goddamn penny we have and then some more. It's working just fine for the Roman Empire, thank you.
ReplyDeleteWell once KC goes broke City of Overland Park will take over then line up dozers and push it all into the Missouri river and start all over again with bare empty ground sort of like they did 70 years ago.
ReplyDeleteTony,
ReplyDeleteThere is a hard reality that none of these politicians can seem to grasp:
Increasing taxes does not necessarily increase revenue while cutting spending *always* reduces the deficit.
These politico's are not adept when it comes to money. I mean, they are quite good at spending it on lavish parking garages and toy trains and fancy hotel parties. But that is not an indication of good stewardship. No. That is more like how kids behave when the parents are out of the house.
And the parents are gone; the voters will not hold these people accountable.
And Fitch's going negative on KC means that if we do have to borrow money (as a city) we will have to spend millions upon millions more in interest payments (via higher taxes).
And guess who gets all that extra interest money? The people who buy the bonds get that money. And guess who has a stake in seeing the interest rates go higher? The people the mayor stood up to (the Kaufmans and the Kempers).
I would even go so far as to argue that Kemper wanted the bond rates to go higher, so that when he and his family buy the bonds they make "Mo Money."
We, the ordinary people, are being ass-raped by these politicians. No, maybe that is not entirely accurate. They are so inept that they are leading us straight into an economic vortex. A black hole (no pun intended) where all our money vanishes as interest on debt and then all our public services suffer (or become more expensive).
Have you notices the higher water rates? Have you noticed the higher electricity rates? Have you noticed the higher prices for gasoline? These are symptoms of the Great Bailouts. Inflation is a symptom of deficit spending. The sky is falling (in a manner of speaking).
But by the time most of you wake up to it, you will find that reality is a much worse nightmare than your dreams could ever be.
Prepare. These politicians are part of the problem and until we replace them with real leaders we will suffer.
J. W. Helkenberg