Town of Evans is having financial collapse

[4248]

It's happened and will continue to happen because we can't do anything to hold them (Politicians) accountable.

We even pay for them to be insured so they don't have to worry about being sued.

They got their checks and tax funded benefits - they got their pensions funded.

So why should they care - their job is not based on performance.

[grump]

I hate to keep harping on this but municipalities do not have their own pension systems; they are a part of the state and local common retirement fund or the police retirement fund. The pension system is not managed by the locality but by the state comptroller. As they go the NYS common retirement fund is pretty close to ok. It was better a few years back and has slid a bit. The comptrollers growth projections for the system, while still unrealistically high, aren't as laughable as those of NJ or Illinois. In NYS, one doesn't find many local governments filing for bankruptcy; typically the legislature appoints a control board with dictatorial powers. Ask Erkel or that hopeless idiot of a county executive, Poloncarz. The continuing existence of a control board is the only thing that prevents these two clown shows from f'ing up all over again tomorrow.

[WSFirst]

I hate to keep harping on this but municipalities do not have their own pension systems; they are a part of the state and local common retirement fund or the police retirement fund. The pension system is not managed by the locality but by the state comptroller. As they go the NYS common retirement fund is pretty close to ok. It was better a few years back and has slid a bit. The comptrollers growth projections for the system, while still unrealistically high, aren't as laughable as those of NJ or Illinois. In NYS, one doesn't find many local governments filing for bankruptcy; typically the legislature appoints a control board with dictatorial powers. Ask Erkel or that hopeless idiot of a county executive, Poloncarz. The continuing existence of a control board is the only thing that prevents these two clown shows from f'ing up all over again tomorrow.

Correct but municipalities do make payments to the pension fund, correct? Tax payers paid the town, the town pays the fund. In 2015, Evans paid almost $1 million in retirement payments. If Evans' revenue is $15,312,638, the expenses shouldn't exceed $15 million, they were $300k over budget!


Two sets of books?

[grump]

Municipalities do contribute but their annual contributions are fixed by the state comptroller. Also, the payments are figured differently for police and for the rest of the workforce. If your argument is that they should've reduced the contribution to balance the budget I don't think they can do that. I believe that there is some screwy mechanism that allows a town to "borrow" its contribution from the fund. But effectively it's just a deferral of the payment for which the town pays interest to the fund. That would be a mistake. My guess...the state comptroller steps in to "assist" with the town's finances.

[WSFirst]

Municipalities do contribute but their annual contributions are fixed by the state comptroller. Also, the payments are figured differently for police and for the rest of the workforce. If your argument is that they should've reduced the contribution to balance the budget I don't think they can do that. I believe that there is some screwy mechanism that allows a town to "borrow" its contribution from the fund. But effectively it's just a deferral of the payment for which the town pays interest to the fund. That would be a mistake. My guess...the state comptroller steps in to "assist" with the town's finances.

But if the town of Evans filed bankruptcy, we could renegotiate the payments or stop altogether until we came up with 2017 and on payment. I would argue the politicians didn't act in good faith by promising; annual return, that's absurd and the town could argue a ponzi-scheme.

My point with bankruptcy is the town starts over and the loan just adds further debt, the status-quo continues.

[WSFirst]

I didn’t read if the load was interest free or had to be paid back some point, to me, either way, the county was just as fiscally irresponsible as well by giving the loan.
Why didn’t the town file bankruptcy? I’m baffled by this and the news didn’t even suggest that as an option, basically put out a press release. The town of Evans population is shrinking, not growing, taxes will increase because the population is getting smaller, less of a tax base, I can’t see why anyone would stay if the tax rate increasing by 50% from 2014 to 2020.

[cheekman]

I didn’t read if the load was interest free or had to be paid back some point, to me, either way, the county was just as fiscally irresponsible as well by giving the loan.
Why didn’t the town file bankruptcy? I’m baffled by this and the news didn’t even suggest that as an option, basically put out a press release. The town of Evans population is shrinking, not growing, taxes will increase because the population is getting smaller, less of a tax base, I can’t see why anyone would stay if the tax rate increasing by 50% from 2014 to 2020.

Like buffalo and wNY areas and now jamestown lots of refugees are pouring in most coming from NYC. As the base of middle class in this area has been forced out of the area due to greedy politicians. they have forced jobs out of the area due to high taxes so the good hard working people that lived here are gone and moved south. so now you get buffalo and other areas with refugees pouring in and now everyone is happy (politicians mayor erkel thinks its great) more people moving in. They are getting more bang for their buck with their free money in WNY. So these people can't pay taxes but live here. Families still continue to leave but the local drive by's will never say that. the top reasons for leaving wny are jobs, taxes property and school, weather, and a issue that is moving up the ladder are gun laws in the state. It is easy for politicians to blame high taxes on their own work force they have done this for years.
pension costs hummm how many years did these towns get away from not paying pension cost due to the stock market making lots and lots of money. but they will never mention that. supervisors like holtz and the queen they have in there now, the jerk in hamburg, the other idiot in west Seneca I want more money because i work hard,and that goofball in amherst. They all like to blame employees when they have to raise taxes. never blame themselves for poor management. if you wanted a pension you should of went into the public sector or ford, GM to work that is what i tell the cry babies that cry about the bennies. your choice what you wanted to do in life. me I screwed bolts into engine blocks for 35 years I liked my job the called me screw ball.

[jennifer7]

Like buffalo and wNY areas and now jamestown lots of refugees are pouring in most coming from NYC. As the base of middle class in this area has been forced out of the area due to greedy politicians. they have forced jobs out of the area due to high taxes so the good hard working people that lived here are gone and moved south. so now you get buffalo and other areas with refugees pouring in and now everyone is happy (politicians mayor erkel thinks its great) more people moving in. They are getting more bang for their buck with their free money in WNY. So these people can't pay taxes but live here. Families still continue to leave but the local drive by's will never say that. the top reasons for leaving wny are jobs, taxes property and school, weather, and a issue that is moving up the ladder are gun laws in the state. It is easy for politicians to blame high taxes on their own work force they have done this for years.
pension costs hummm how many years did these towns get away from not paying pension cost due to the stock market making lots and lots of money. but they will never mention that. supervisors like holtz and the queen they have in there now, the jerk in hamburg, the other idiot in west Seneca I want more money because i work hard,and that goofball in amherst. They all like to blame employees when they have to raise taxes. never blame themselves for poor management. if you wanted a pension you should of went into the public sector or ford, GM to work that is what i tell the cry babies that cry about the bennies. your choice what you wanted to do in life. me I screwed bolts into engine blocks for 35 years I liked my job the called me screw ball.

So True, and yet WNY's worst days are still ahead,

[WSFirst]

Wait till the Stock Market has another correction and taxes have to go up for the pensions, not to mention the ACA rising costs that will increase the health care costs.

What about the others on the list? When will the other towns, counties, and villages above them need a bailout? How far away is Akron from asking for a loan?