Haik - care to give a view on how this situation has been handled by the current administration yet? I thought the attempt to edit this report by Kiss/Leopold was a nice touch.
Another question. Everyone is talking about "restructurung" the debt. Does anyone knwo what that actually entails? What are the chances that CitiCapital plays ball here?
"If we had a partnership and we became a minority partner does that foreclose some elements of how we want this to look?" he questioned. "Or do we lose transparency because it becomes a private company?"
Seriously? Did Kiss really say he is worried about transparency in regards to BT? Pot meet kettle. How do people put up with this nonsense?
Yeah he would have said that. And then he would have totally invited me to join the Athena House Chess Club.
I'm not making apologies for the Mayor. As to thing being hidden during elections, well it seems you too have a firm grasp on the obvious, my friend. All candidates hide the bad and trumpet the good in an election. They want to win you know.
I would still say for the most part Bob Kiss has been a good mayor. He paved the streets and balanced the budget. He's gonna be the one who finally connects the connector.
It only takes one fatal mistake for the mistake to be fatal, though. His mistake his allegience to Leopold and to the whole CAO concept. Having a "CAO" is stupid. It's leads to double pensions and illegal loans.
Burlington Telecom crashing and dying is incidental to the very poor political dynamic of essentially having two mayors, each with plausible deniability because of the other.
But as they say- Kiss doesn't have to outrun the tiger. He just has to outrun the others running from the tiger. The best person for any elected position is virtually never on the ballot for it. One does not have to be the best person for the job to win it. One only need be the best person running for the position in a given year. And Bob Kiss was, in fact, the best person running in each of his mayoral elections.
I will say this though. I won't vote for Bob again if Leopold still works for the city when the next election comes. And it won't be a vote against Bob, who I really like. It will be a vote against Leopold.
Haik. Your comment on the Mayor being the one that connects the connector made me think the following. The connector at this point has been a triparty disaster probably not to any parties fault. My reasoning. 45 yr. or so ago the connector began with the support of Dem. Bill Aswad, and I think Dem. Hoff was the guv., or maybe it was Deane Davis the Republican. No matter what the Dem. Bill Aswad was their. It skipped,and jumped,and drowned and frowned for many years until the Republican duo of Bush and Douglas guaranteed the completion. More skipping and jumping and frowning has left us for the third party led by Prog. Kiss to promise the completion. One good thing about a state with a strong three parties is that results are are as far away as a two party system. In closing the connector probably has a stronger chance of being a disposal ground for tritium as it does a highway. Typing out this comment sure brought a sense of stress relief to this body, I hope the readers can take a deep breath and enjoy it.
So he balanced the budget? Ummm...besides the +$1000 of debt per man, woman and child of Burlington due to BT...what about the other fiscal elephant in the corner that Bob has yet to even address? Granted he was not the one who started the problem, but the city's pension deficit has been avoided like the plague. Your view on that?
He balanced the general fund budget. The cash pool is 17M light, but as far as I know all the city's bills are paid including all obligations to pensioners so far. Correct me if you have contrary facts to offer. The mayor did address the issue in his interview with me from Feb 1 of last year. He believes in the philosophy of a defined benefit package and to the best of my knowledge, he raised the taxes necessary to cover the fund's needs for the short term.
I could be wrong. Nobody is saying BT's destruction is a happy thing for the city, but I think some people might be using it as a vehicle to vent their 30 year old frustrations with Progressives. It just happens to be the most spectacular and expensive failure of progressive policy during their reign so people are projecting into it all kinds of quasi-related or even unrelated things.
BT has nothing to do with frustration over 30 years of progressive rule but everything to do with the fact that the Kiss Administration used your and my money to advance their agenda (BT) contrary to the authority that they had been given. They then lied, obfuscated and have still avoided accepting blame. I don't care that the progressives have been in power for 30 years. We are about to face a $50 million plus liability. Your facts on the pension are way off. The Admininstration has not dealt with the underfunding of the pension and depending on who you ask, the underfunding ranges between $30 - $70 million. It gets no attention because unlike BT, it is not a present liability.
Haik - care to give a view on how this situation has been handled by the current administration yet? I thought the attempt to edit this report by Kiss/Leopold was a nice touch.
ReplyDeleteAnother question. Everyone is talking about "restructurung" the debt. Does anyone knwo what that actually entails? What are the chances that CitiCapital plays ball here?
"If we had a partnership and we became a minority partner
ReplyDeletedoes that foreclose some elements of how we want this to look?" he questioned. "Or do we lose transparency because it becomes a private company?"
Seriously? Did Kiss really say he is worried about transparency in regards to BT? Pot meet kettle. How do people put up with this nonsense?
Haik - care to give a view on how this situation has been handled by the current administration yet?
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't been handled super well.
In 9th grade Mr McGrath would have commented "you have a firm grasp of the obvious Haik".
ReplyDeleteC'mon Haik. Shay has already grabbed the baton as the regional apologist for Bob and Company on this. Not you too...?
For someone so focused on elections you really don't want to tie together the fact this was all being hidden in the middle of elections.
Yeah he would have said that. And then he would have totally invited me to join the Athena House Chess Club.
ReplyDeleteI'm not making apologies for the Mayor. As to thing being hidden during elections, well it seems you too have a firm grasp on the obvious, my friend. All candidates hide the bad and trumpet the good in an election. They want to win you know.
I would still say for the most part Bob Kiss has been a good mayor. He paved the streets and balanced the budget. He's gonna be the one who finally connects the connector.
It only takes one fatal mistake for the mistake to be fatal, though. His mistake his allegience to Leopold and to the whole CAO concept. Having a "CAO" is stupid. It's leads to double pensions and illegal loans.
Burlington Telecom crashing and dying is incidental to the very poor political dynamic of essentially having two mayors, each with plausible deniability because of the other.
But as they say- Kiss doesn't have to outrun the tiger. He just has to outrun the others running from the tiger. The best person for any elected position is virtually never
on the ballot for it. One does not have to be the best person for the job to win it. One only need be the best person running for the position in a given year. And Bob Kiss was, in fact, the best person running in each of his mayoral elections.
I will say this though. I won't vote for Bob again if Leopold still works for the city when the next election comes. And it won't be a vote against Bob, who I really like. It will be a vote against Leopold.
Haik.
ReplyDeleteYour comment on the Mayor being the one that connects the connector made me think the following.
The connector at this point has been a triparty disaster probably not to any parties fault. My reasoning.
45 yr. or so ago the connector began with the support of Dem. Bill Aswad, and I think Dem. Hoff was the guv., or maybe it was Deane Davis the Republican. No matter what the Dem. Bill Aswad was their. It skipped,and jumped,and drowned and frowned for many years until the Republican duo of Bush and Douglas guaranteed the completion. More skipping and jumping and frowning has left us for the third party led by Prog. Kiss to promise the completion.
One good thing about a state with a strong three parties is that results are are as far away as a two party system.
In closing the connector probably has a stronger chance of being a disposal ground for tritium as it does a highway.
Typing out this comment sure brought a sense of stress relief to this body, I hope the readers can take a deep breath and enjoy it.
So he balanced the budget? Ummm...besides the +$1000 of debt per man, woman and child of Burlington due to BT...what about the other fiscal elephant in the corner that Bob has yet to even address? Granted he was not the one who started the problem, but the city's pension deficit has been avoided like the plague. Your view on that?
ReplyDeleteHe balanced the general fund budget. The cash pool is 17M light, but as far as I know all the city's bills are paid including all obligations to pensioners so far. Correct me if you have contrary facts to offer. The mayor did address the issue in his interview with me from Feb 1 of last year. He believes in the philosophy of a defined benefit package and to the best of my knowledge, he raised the taxes necessary to cover the fund's needs for the short term.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong. Nobody is saying BT's destruction is a happy thing for the city, but I think some people might be using it as a vehicle to vent their 30 year old frustrations with Progressives. It just happens to be the most spectacular and expensive failure of progressive policy during their reign so people are projecting into it all kinds of quasi-related or even unrelated things.
Haik,
ReplyDeleteBT has nothing to do with frustration over 30 years of progressive rule but everything to do with the fact that the Kiss Administration used your and my money to advance their agenda (BT) contrary to the authority that they had been given. They then lied, obfuscated and have still avoided accepting blame. I don't care that the progressives have been in power for 30 years. We are about to face a $50 million plus liability. Your facts on the pension are way off. The Admininstration has not dealt with the underfunding of the pension and depending on who you ask, the underfunding ranges between $30 - $70 million. It gets no attention because unlike BT, it is not a present liability.
Please make your blogger profile available for viewing William.
ReplyDelete"the cash pool is 17M light, but as far as I know all the city's bills are paid including all obligations to pensioners so far."
ReplyDeleteBT debts are going to be paid right up until they are no longer, which is soon.
The BT issue and the Pension issue are related as they have were totally hidden/avoided by the current administration in order to get re-elected.
If William is correct then the Queen City is $100 million in the hole. Whoa.
Any guess where taxes are going?