QUINCY ‒ New schools, big investments in the
city's downtown district, a mammoth
new public safety headquarters, constant road repairs and a $575 million
pension obligation bond. These are some of the expenditures that add up to about $1.64 billion debt on Quincy's books.
By most
metrics, Quincy's debt ranks high among Massachusetts communities. In long-term debt, it trails only Boston, a city six-and-a-half times more populous. According to
2024 state data, Quincy's $1.05 billion in long-term debt stands at about 60% of Boston's $1.76 billion.
Of the nine Massachusetts cities with more than 100,000 residents, Quincy has far and away the highest per capita long-term debt at $10,289, almost double its nearest peer, Cambridge at $5,214.
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Among Massachusetts cities, Quincy also has the highest annual debt payments due as a percentage of the budget at 14.74%. Cambridge again comes in a distant second at 9.09%. Annual debt payments, commonly called debt service, are the total of the annual principal and interest payments. Quincy's debt service is projected to increase significantly over the next two years, largely due to the pension obligation bond, then remain at elevated levels into the 2030s.
In 2024, Quincy spent $63.5 million of its $431 million budget on debt service. In 2026, debt service will peak at $91 million and remain above $80 million through 2032, according to the city's current projections.
But Municipal Finance Director Eric Mason said these figures can be misleading. Quincy has taken advantage of favorable market conditions to finance projects that spur economic growth and increase city revenue over time, Mason said.
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In December 2021, Quincy
issued a pension obligation bond when rates were historically low, fulfilling a state mandate while saving the city tens of millions of dollars over the 18-year life of the bond, Mason said.
"We used much cheaper dollars to fulfill that obligation at 2.62 percent," he added. The city projects a 6.75% return on investments made with proceeds from the bond.
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Quincy uses a piece of state legislation, known as
District Improvement Financing, to finance improvement projects aimed at stimulating economic growth in the downtown district. The program allows Quincy to pay for those improvements by leveraging projected growth in the downtown.
