Joint Budget gets updates, sets "listening sessions" schedule, hears from Town Dept Heads (video)

The Joint Budget Subcommittee met as scheduled on Tuesday evening in Council Chambers. 10 of the 11 members participated (Corbosiero was absent).

Franklin TV video is available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/live/Pq0-UqDkm4o?&t=54

The agenda doc and supporting material for the meeting ->   https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/2024-12-17_joint_budget_subcommittee_meeting_agenda.pdf

The Town Department Head's letter to the committee ->   https://www.franklinmatters.org/2024/12/letter-to-joint-budget-subcommittee.html

Quick recap:

• First item approval of prior meeting minutes
• Mar 8, 2023; Aug 2, 2023; Oct 11, 2023; Mar 6, 2024; Oct 23, 2024
• All minutes were moved separately for a vote, all votes unanimously approved. 10 members participating in Chambers
• Town Administrator Jamie Hellen provides an update on minimal changes to the developing FY 2026 budget; Norfolk County pension #s now firm  
• Health care costs are increasing approx. 18%, company is loosing money on Franklin our claims are exceeding what we pay in premium $s, by about 12 cents more than we pay Insurance Advisory Cmte (IAC) has been working well, less competition available in the market
• $4.5M is a large number, we are still far away from the final numbers, dept budget are due soon, collective bargaining underway, Gov budget coming out in Jan 2025; local receipts likely will get bumped up with the 2nd Quarter results, as well as the 3rd Q results for Input to the FY 2026 budget
• Employees participate in health care costs with a 68-32 split (town pays 68, employee 32). Only 64% of the employees have coverage.
• So what had been a $3.7M deficit is now a $4.5M deficit with those 2 factors; Norfolk County pension cost and health care costs adding to increase the deficit. Jamie holds that it will come down slightly as the rest of the numbers get firmed up but will likely still be in the 3-4M range.
• Schedule of "listening sessions" released, to be adjusted slightly adding (or moving) one session to a Saturday. All have commitments to make this series of sessions work. Other coffees can be scheduled with some members participating
• Letter from the Town Department Head's was handed to committee members and read jointly by Chief Lynch, Chief McLaughlin and Library Director Oti.

My set of notes from the meeting ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yVajSM_qNPtttoVAWuWjqA9OMDRtTyYl/view?usp=drive_link

Town Administrator Jamie Hellen provides an update on minimal changes to the developing FY 2026 budget