March 28, 2024

Checking the Maytag ‘aftermath’

As a proud former Maytager, I strongly doubt that any of my ex-office and factory colleagues mark their calendars to commemorate the death of their once-great employer. We’ve moved on with new opportunities. But since the news media feels compelled to revisit the funeral anniversary, taking a pulse check on the community’s vitality, I’ll offer some alternative perspectives.

Based upon their numbers, city leaders want us to believe that “Newton has thrived without Maytag.” Really? Thriving? Seriously?

As Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

About those stated unemployment figures — a “3.2 percent unemployment rate” would truly be great — if only it were true. Many may not realize that when a person exhausts their unemployment benefits or don’t qualify for them, but remain jobless — they’re not factored into the official unemployment rate. This includes the growing population of welfare recipients that has made Newton their new home in recent years. They’re simply not part of the statistical formulation. So our real unemployment rate is substantially higher.

TPI, Trinity and others have been new-business blessings. However, with 900 hardworking TPI employees filling orders for a single customer (GE Energy), isn’t this eerily similar to placing “all of our eggs in one basket” as we had with Maytag? Someday, might the very wind gusts that propel turbines to clean energy also level that labor force like a proverbial house of cards?

Are we now just complacently resting in the calm before another, more-devastating economic storm hits? If Maytag’s demise taught us anything, surely it’s never to say “never.”

The city reports property tax collections up substantially over the past decade. No real shocker there. My taxes have increased steadily during that timeframe just like everyone else’s, while our property assessments took a hit and our city services continue stressed from budgetary constraints. And now comes the proposal to build a new Berg Middle School to raise property taxes even higher.

Note to City Hall: As you attempt to attract newcomers, the ante to live in Newton is becoming excessive, if not prohibitive, given ever-increasing taxes and costs associated with commuting to out-of-town jobs.

Pom-poms and positive thinking are important to continued economic recovery but should never come at the expense of accurate facts and credibility, which are deserved to those of us committed to stay. “Thriving” headlines serve merely as punchlines — that are anything but amusing.

Kurt A. Funke

Newton