Franklin (MA) News Summary as of June 2, 2023

The Franklin Town Council approved the FY 2024 budget with a unanimous 9-0 vote on May 25, 2023. The Town has a balanced budget with minor increases to Police, Fire, and Senior Center funding. However, the Franklin school budget remains short $2.3M from what they requested.

Town Administrator Jamie Hellen has a plan to add about $700K to the school budget and that is up for Town Council vote on June 7, 2023. Assuming it passes, the schools still need to adjust their budget down by about $1.6M. The schools and Franklin are faced with hard choices.

It may seem like tough budget choices this year but according to the fiscal outlook it will get even tougher next year. Hence, now would be a good time to get involved and be part of the discussion to understand the cost drivers, and what can be done with what we have.

The one good item coming out of the Council and Finance Committee budget hearings seems to be a consensus on truly taking some action to resolve this systemic budget problem. The Joint Budget subcommittee will be tasked with that. The Subcommittee is composed of 4 Town Councilors, 3 from the School Committee and 3 from the Finance Committee. This group has its work cut out for themselves.

They don’t need to do it alone.

An informed resident can provide input to help this subcommittee make the best decision when it comes to advising the Town Council with our budget priorities for FY 2025 and beyond.

Also on the bright side, the 9th Annual Strawberry Stroll is scheduled for downtown Franklin Friday, June 9 from 4 to 9 PM (rain date June 10). Additional info on the event can be found on the Downtown Partnership page -> https://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2023/06/many-activities-and-booths-set-for-june.html 

Subscribe to Franklin.news to get the info on all these discussions and links to the budget documents, the video, and audio replays of the meetings as they progress.

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Franklin News Summary as of June 2, 2023

This was originally shared via the United Regional Chamber of Commerce weekly newsletter. Businesses should consider becoming a member -> https://unitedregionalchamber.org/