TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! KANSAS CITY RISING DEBT AND DEFICIT RAISE CREDIT RATING CONCERNS!!!
Kansas City's credit rating was recently reaffirmed as stable but along with the good news there was a brief glimpse of trouble ahead for City Hall's financial future.
In a recent presentation during the business session, Tammy Queen Deputy Director of Finance said" "The stable outlook reflects the continued trend of stability in the local economy and our financial performance. That's supported by the fact we did pension reform and that we have a 5-year financial plan. Both Standard & Poor's and Moody's are interested in our ability to stick with that plan as we move forward."
However, it's not all good news for 12th & Oak as a few risk factors for Kansas City's credit rating signal problems ahead.
Here's the run-down . . .
- Across ALL governmental funds, Kansas City ran a deficit.
- Moody's tells City Hall that Kansas City has a below average socioeconomic profile i.e. average household income.
- Kansas City debt service plus pension payments exceed 20% of governmental expenditures. Kansas City holds one of the highest debt ratios in the nation for denizens of this credit rating category.
Of course, the financial wonks and the Mayor warn that failure to pass Kansas City's earnings tax will kill this town's credit rating but the notes from the recent presentation reveal that City Hall's litany of problems have as much to do with rampant spending and shaky financial management than anything else.
You decide . . .
Of course it's easier to just keep spending than look at KCMo priorities. that's what city hall is counting on.
ReplyDeleteLow socioeconomic profile?
ReplyDeleteBut I thought we were a smart city? Aren't all of those internet jobs created going to raise our profile and our revenue?
That's what the told us.
Sly lied.
ReplyDeletePension payments high because Council voted themselves life time pensions payable after only serving 8 years in office and contributing minimally. Troy set up an Executive lavish pension account to guarantee his golden parachute. John Sharp folded in the MAST employees.....when Sharp and the MAST board had run their MAST pension fund almost to zero. that is why Sharp pushed for them to become City employees so that the City could cover the major deficit in Mast pensions. Finally, Troy and the financial geniuses had not contributed the appropriate City's share to the many pension funds years ago in order to fund the political projects of Kay Barnes, Cleaver, now Sly. These are the reasons the pension funds are the way they are. Political Corruption is the cause.
ReplyDelete"reaffirmed as stable"
ReplyDeleteHaha! Right about as stable as the run up leading to the great crash of 08.
Why do we need an e-tax? After all.....
ReplyDelete... new tourism research reports commissioned by VisitKC are confirming what locals already know: Kansas City is on fire. According to new research, a record 24 million visitors from across the country flocked to Kansas City in 2014, a 5 percent jump from 2012 when the previous record was set. And by eating our barbecue and shopping at the Country Club Plaza, those visitors generated a whopping $5.1 billion in economic impact – a 12 percent climb since 2012.
And half of that $5.1 billion was just from tourists eating barbecue and drinking locally produced beer!
ReplyDeleteTammy, Yael, whoever can't hide all the cracks appearing in the Lyin' Sly James Regimes Facade anymore.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of leaders who weren't worried about being friends with Moody's andSly James happens to be one of them.
ReplyDeleteDefeat of the Earnings Tax will force city hall to take better care of taxpayer money. The Earnings Tax is the enabler that makes city hall feel comfortable spending, spending, spending! Take away the checkbook and city hall will focus on the important things. VOTE NO ON APRIL 5TH!!!
ReplyDelete@8:41
ReplyDeleteGood question about the empty and grandiose claims of KCMO being a "smart city".
Big-time urban environment.
Internet jobs galore.
And counting on the "creative class" of millenials of which, it was recently reported in the Star, 40% live with their parents and make less than $10K/ year.
Seems a weak reed to bet your city's financial success on.
How's Mike's new hotel coming?
What Tony left out is the FACT both agencies posted a warning that City's long term borrowing rates are at risk because KC has its E Tax at risk every 5 years.
ReplyDeleteCoffey doesn't care. He hates the city and wishes it to implode. Hey Dan how about a long delayed move to Florida? And take your band of no - nothings with you.
We love our city. Leave us alone, things have never been better.
Misery sucks ass
ReplyDelete8:57 is correct, pensions will eventually be the city's undoing. But the day of reckoning can be put off for several years, long enough for those in charge to have moved on.
ReplyDeleteAs to bond rating agencies I doubt their ability to rate cities. There are simply too many variables that are not financial in nature i.e. the level of competency and corruption in leadership.
What will kill your, my or the city's credit rating is spending money you don't have to spend. We need fiscal responsibility rather than this shill disguised as building a world class city. The fact is Kansas City is not a world class city, does not have the revenue or the tax base to be a world class city, does not have the potential to be a world clas city and there are scores of cities way ahead of KC that will also never be "world class". Robbing your citizens and those located outside of your city wont change a thing. There is only one place you get Paris folks and it isn't located in the middle of coon town, KC.
ReplyDeleteThe Troy/ Sly/ Cleaver corruption crew don't care about fiscal responsibility of the city. Personal financial gain is their mantra.
ReplyDelete10:36 has said what need to be said here perfectly.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the solution is to take care of those city officials to make sure they don't make ever see a dime of their pensions and neither their dependents.... They have failed this city
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is that is the crooks could run again KC would reelect them because the street monkeys do as they are told.
ReplyDeleteVote NO on etax. It's important.
ReplyDeleteSo they are already grooming the replacement, er next Mayoral candidate?
ReplyDeleteSo we got a toy train that won't generate any revenue, a bunch of overpriced apartments most people can't afford, and a taxpayer subsidized hotel coming soon downtown.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a really financially stable situation.
That's the outcome of power player people living outside of the city, sticking their arms and muscle into KC to run the City and profit off of it. Oddly, they do not try to scam the communities (suburbs) that they live in.
ReplyDeleteYep. 2:22pm Gets it.
Delete"Moody's tells City Hall that Kansas City has a below average socioeconomic profile i.e. average household income."
ReplyDeleteThat's why the earnings tax is such a big deal. Soaks the well-off Johnson County people who long ago fled KCMO but still commute to work there.
KCMO is a small metro with delusions of urban grandeur ... but with only a miserable tax base (composed mostly of people on welfare) to pay for it.
This is a problem brought on by decade after decade of corrupt and ineffective government. KCMO created its own mess and now wants affluent suburbanites (the people who were smart enough to get the hell out of KCMO) to pay for it.
Fuck that.
You ungrateful wretches should be glad those refugees are still willing to come to your decrepit town to work every day. The companies they work for are all that's really left of your tax base.
The people who reap the vast profits off of the political developer scams---soaking up KC taxpayer money do not live in Kansas City, nor do they pay the celebrated "earnings tax". pure scam profit out of the City's coffers to support lavish suburban lifestyles. No..KC residents are not grateful for being constantly ripped off by these out of town "developers".
ReplyDeleteThe terrible decisions that regularly create a dysfunctional and unattractive community are made by the people elected to mayoral and council positions by the residents of the city. And the same kind of inept, self-important, incompetent, and ineffectual folks have been elected for decades.
ReplyDeleteWhen the electeds have no understanding and even little interest in the actual responsibilities and services of local government and instead fall over each other to schmooze and subsidize the favor-seekers, swells, and grifters who endlessly line up at their office doors, it shouldn't be any surprise that the results suck year after year.
Low-turnout elections by those who benefit financially and the cheer leading KC booster crowd who fall for every grandiose scheme and latest fad the politicos can pull out of their hats.
A credit card Christmas can be lots of fun.
The bill arrival in January, not so much.
The e-tax will be renewed with a low-turnout election and the cycle will start again.
Thanks for playing.
such a shame that we haven't found a way to replace this horrible tax. KC needs to do better.
ReplyDeleteThe toy choo choo will get us a quadruple A rating. Just wait and see.
ReplyDeleteWorld's Least Interesting Man see...
ReplyDeleteI don't often seek financial reporting, but when I do, I turn to a blog for misanthropic racist cowards from the suburbs of a fly-over cowtown, who spend their days ceaselessly and impotently raging against a modest public transit project that funds itself.
^^^ Streetcar funds itself? Please tell me you're joking.
ReplyDeleteTammy Queen, Deputy Director of Finance. I bet if you looked at department org charts that you will find a high level top heavy organization. You might even find an assistant city engineer who's only job is the street car.
ReplyDelete