Franklin Matters: Frequently asked questions: "The town officials have found money"

Friday, May 28, 2010

Frequently asked questions: "The town officials have found money"

The town officials have found money in the past. They’ll find it again this time, won’t they?

Town and school leaders have done what they could to protect services for the community. The most critical issue facing Franklin is its dangerous reliance on state aid. We rank 1st out of 30 peer communities in the percent of town revenue that comes from state aid. But state aid is a revenue source over which we have no control. In fact, our over-reliance on state aid was cited by Moody’s Investors Service as a reason for downgrading Franklin’s bond rating in late 2009. The state aid we have come to rely on is estimated to decrease in the years ahead.

In the past, Franklin was able to protect core services by annually tapping into additional sources of revenue to avoid the need for property tax overrides. Those funding sources are no longer available. Franklin also has used legal settlement proceeds (which have been spent), incremental property tax revenue associated with rapid population growth (which has dried up almost completely), one-time revenues such as federal stimulus funds (which are set to expire after this year), and money from our emergency fund. We cannot continue to rely on one-time wind falls or state aid. It’s time to decide the type of community we are willing to fund as citizens and taxpayers.

One of a series to address frequently asked questions
http://investinfranklin.weebly.com/faq-part-1.html

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The special election on June 8th gives Franklin voters the choice:

Increase taxes to continue to provide the services we have this year (and that does not restore any of the services already cut)

Or

Continue to cut municipal services for all and cut educational opportunities for our children

I'll help to provide the information. You need to do two things: