This Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m., Newton Mayor Setti Warren will deliver his annual State of the City address.
What do you think is the state of Newton and what points — and commitments — do you hope Mayor Warren will make?
This Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m., Newton Mayor Setti Warren will deliver his annual State of the City address.
What do you think is the state of Newton and what points — and commitments — do you hope Mayor Warren will make?
The state of Newton is insolvent thanks to Setti Warren and David Cohen.
http://newton.patch.com/groups/newton-taxpayers-association/p/the-poor-state-of-newtons-financial-position
Insolvent? The last time Newton went to the bond market was April, 2013. “Moody’s assigns Aaa rating to the City of Newton’s (MA) $22.735 million General Obligation Municipal Purpose Loan of 2013 Bonds; outlook remains stable.” (https://www.moodys.com/credit-ratings/Newton-City-of-MA-credit-rating-600024787)
Now, just nine months later, the NTA thinks otherwise? You’ll have to shout louder, people can’t hear you. Or have stopped listening.
Max, I don’t put too much stock in what the credit rating agencies have to say. Last I checked, the rating agencies had investment-grade ratings on Lehman Brothers.
When Newton has to start reporting the full amount of its unfunded pension and OPEB liabilities on its balance sheet, will the rating agencies still be singing that tune?
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/56403/12-05-13%20Financial%20Audit%20Advisory%20CommitteeReport.pdf
Under Setti Warren’s first term as mayor, Newton’s outstanding bonded indebtedness has increased by $6 Million, its net unfunded pension liabilities increased by $36 Million (in a rising stock market no less) and its unfunded OPEB liabilities increased by $70 Million.
For the longest time, the private sector has had to record and accrue these liabilities on its balance sheet. Now that the government sector will have to start doing so in the near term future, I only hope that the rating agencies will reevaluate their credits ratings on municipal borrowers.
@Max – the Moody’s rating is for Newton’s General Obligation Bonds (GOs). Without getting too technical, GOs have very high place in the pecking order. If Newton’s revenues were ever (highly improbable) to go down, we would have to first pay the bond holders before the town employees (and as Detroit pointed out – even the retirees).
Pension, OPEB liabilities and these Bonds do represent a risk to our future financial health – I doubt if anyone disagrees. The extent of the risk is however debatable. $38K may not seem too high in a city where average house value is around $700K. And when the time comes for us to pony up, I am sure we can raise necessary monies via override (like Wellesley).
@Joshua – I disagree that bond rating will take any beating when the banks suddenly find out our unfunded liabilities. They already know ( read the “Challenges” section – http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/51270).
And take it for whatever worth it is – but you have some good facts, but not the best of tone. Max is right people are tuning you out – Your organization and your mission may be better suited with another spokesperson…. Just a thought..
Newton Dad, I disagree with your conclusions about my tone. I understand that on this blog, the majority of people here have bought into the Setti Warren personality cult and don’t appreciate it when people point out real facts based on logical data that contradict the image that they are trying to construct around Setti Warren. So they have to resort to defensive-deflective ways to criticize what I say like “Well, we don’t like the tone of how you say it”. It’s tough to put a happy face on bad news.
As for Wellesley’s OPEB override in 2006, it will only cover 15% of the OPEB unfunded liability. The NTA doesn’t support an OPEB override and recognized that an override based on “savings of $178 Million” (which turned out to be imaginary smoke-and-mirrors), persuading half of the 2008 anti-override leadership that things were supposedly different, scare-mongering about run-down school buildings, and facing down a much smaller opponent only got 55% of the vote.
An OPEB override that tries to preserve lavish Cadillac healthcare benefits for unionized government employees will be defeated, despite the best efforts by Newton city government to gin up support for an OPEB override.
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/52458/04-11-13%20Financial%20Audit%20Advisory%20Committee%20Report.pdf
Joshua – The comments were mine, and not because I disagree with you. But rather, persuading people with other mindframe or opinion is very difficult. Again – $0.02.
I dont think anyone is that naive to go to residents with an override for OPEB, instead it will be for funding operations or some manufactured crisis – that the way just things work…
Newton Dad, I commend your attempt to help Joshua. I tried twice to provide constructive suggestions, and he rebuffed my efforts both times. As you stated, he works hard to provide some very useful information to the conversation. Yet he does not understand the concept of seeking common ground before tryng to get two divergent parties to create a solution.
He is an adult with a blind spot that he will not fix with help from people he does not know. I suggested he seek advice from Bill Heck, whom he seems to respect, if he truly wanted to help solve our issues.
To people on this blog who constantly attack Joshua for his so called ATTITUDE, you are deflecting attention away from the real issues of the conversation.
Joshua might just be a little angry and frustrated about the financial health of this city. He works his butt off to tell us what is actually going on here. Our Comptroller is another person gravely concerned about how carelessly money is spent in Newton. Newton North is a perfect example. Millions were spent renovating the roof, swimming pool, gymnasium floor etc. Then the building was torn down for no good reason and $200 million spent to build a new one.
That is only one example of wasteful spending decisions.
I want to personally thank Joshua for his steadfast commitment to voice an important view of Newton’s financial status.
What bothers me is that none of this type of debate exists within the function of our aldermanic debate. As a matter of fact Ted H.M. was just fired from chairing Land Use because he challenged city leadership once too often.
So thanks Joshua, nobody can fire you. Keep up the great work.
Thank You Colleen!
I agree with everything you said. I wish this kind of debate existed in our aldermanic chambers and school committee meetings.
I understand why Ted H.M. was fired from chairing Land Use. It was the same reason why Setti hired Dori Zaleznik as HHS Commissioner and Reenie Murphy as his EA (and now as an HR administrator). He’s simply rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies.
Colleen, if you are directing your comment to me and Newton Dad, then I am confused. The three of us, including you, are saying the same thing, and you want it stopped. All three of us acknowledge that Josh works hard to provide useful information to this blog. You say he is angry and frustrated. Newton Dad and I say that anger and frustration is displayed through the tone of his blog. That tone is what Max is also saying is turning people off to Josh’s message.
I will only speak for myself. I do not know Josh other than through his blog comments and attending one meeting where he spoke. I agree with most of his positions. However I would not join any organization where he has a leadership role. He does not display the leadership qualities that I expect in a person. If a person is leading a minority position, s/he needs to build a coalition with at least parts of the majority, if s/he wants to develop a viable solution. To me, Josh wants to win and implement his solution as if everything else is wrong. I have yet to meet a person who is 100% correct all of the time.
I delayed my reply to you until after Josh provided his input. His comments continue to validate that he has a blind spot with regards to improving the tone of his message. That is unfortunate.
What Patrick said!
The State of Newton is . . . postponed until February 3, 2014 due to snow emergency.
Patrick, I disagree with your conclusion about my tone. All I do is point out real facts based on verifiable data which call for logical solutions.
As for your advice on building coalitions with other people, I’m way ahead of you on that one. After the override election last year, I identified who I should reach out to regarding fiscal reform and who will be an intractable opponent to fiscal reform and I have been building ties with those who seem friendly to reform. I may not have gotten around to telling you about that, but my membership knows and has encouraged me to pursue these avenues of communication.
Newton Dad, as for persuading people with different opinions, the NTA has certain core principles that distinguish us from Newton’s Political Insider Group which is completely controlled by people committed to more taxes, spending and borrowing. We will never attract these peoplw to our organization and it’s a fools mission to attempt to do so.
On the other hand, there are tens of thousands of taxpaying voters who are so disgusted by politics that they don’t even bother to vote. I believe that they would potentially be willing to vote for an NTA Reformer who offers them real alternative to the ultra-left wing insanity that produces ideas such as spending $8 Million annually to educate 583 out of district students or turning down $2.1 Million annually from naming rights or accumulating $1+ BILLION in unfunded debt and retirement benefit obligations to provide lavish compensation packages for government worker unions.
And I am aware that when the city goes to ask for an override, they will probably do it sometime around 2017-2019 and they will gin up outrage over the condition of Ward, Williams, Peirce and Lincoln-Eliot.