On this date: Feb 23, 2011 - Long Range Financial Planning Committee meeting

I did live reporting from the Long Range Planning Committee meeting on Feb 23, 2011:

Live reporting - Long Range Financial Planning Committee

Present: Doug Hardesty, Deb Bartlett, Craig DiMarzio, Graydon Smith, Sue Rohrbach, Steve Whalen,
Absent: Jeff Nutting, Orrin Bean, John Hogan,  Ken Harvey, Tina Powderly

Approval of minutes - postponed to next meeting
Action items - none

Discussion:
Metrics and benchmarking - Steve Whalen (Vice Chair, Town Council)

background, research analyst for an investment banking firm
drawn in by a comment made by J Nutting at a meeting sometime ago; "a town's budget is a reflection of their values"
started collecting data, started with a map and filled in data for the communities around us
The DOR site is a tremendous source of info, so much data is available
came up with 30 communities
walking through the info on his comparison worksheet
color coded communities by single versus split tax rate
we have a low tax rate compared to other communities with either a split or single tax rate
we are 21st in comparison on the average tax bill (of the 30)
we are 26th on relative tax burden which is a comparison of tax rate to community wealth
we rank 28th in percent of local property tax contributing to the total community revenue
we rank 1st in the percent of state aid contributing to the total community revenue

Continue reading about the meeting and the introduction of the community comparison

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/02/live-reporting-long-range-financial_23.html

The five year forecast the Committee put together and completed (in 2012) has been updated and re-issued each year as part of the budget cycle.

The initial 2012 report:

https://www.franklinma.gov/finance-committee/files/financial-plan-committee-report-2012

The FY 2018-2022 version can be found here

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/franklinma/files/news/five_year_fiscal_forecast_fy18_-_fy22.pdf

On this date: Feb 23, 2011 - Long Range Financial Planning Committee meeting

Franklin Residents/Taxpayers, you'll be tested on this

Aside from the budget, this is the single most important document that every Franklin resident and taxpayer should be familiar with. After the only operational override passed in 2007, there was another attempt in 2008 that failed. One of the outcomes of the failure was the establishment of the Long Range Financial Planning Committee. 

The committee began with representatives from the Town Council (3), School Committee (2), and Finance Committee (2). In December 2010, it was reformed as a committee completely made up of 'citizens' - that is residents with no other direct board membership.

Vision The Long Range Finance Committee is a citizen advisory group tasked with helping citizens and Town officials better understand Franklin’s long-term financial outlook and the various courses of action available to secure Franklin’s financial future. 

Mission The Committee will achieve this vision by (i) evaluating and reporting on the Town’s five-year financial projection, (ii) assessing the nature and potential magnitude of the Town’s significant financial risks, particularly those that give rise to a structural deficit, and (iii) recommending steps to close the gap between future expected revenues and expenditures in an effort ultimately to achieve fiscal sustainability.

The Committee produced their final report in June 2012. Since that time, the Town Administrator has been updating the long range financial plan each year.

The current report was just posted to the Town of Franklin webpage and is copied here for your reading pleasure.

The introduction from Town Administrator Jeff Nutting:

"Each year we look into the crystal ball and try to project the long term fiscal health of the community. We look at trends over the last five years, adjust for one time issues or "bumps" in the road and then try to predict the fiscal future. Looking ahead a couple of years is not that difficult while projecting five years ahead is a "best guess' of what may affect local government beyond the "normal revenue and expenses" We do not know today how the economy, Federal and State budgets, changing demographics, growing population, unknown mandates, health care, etc. will affect our fiscal health in the future. 

We do know that: 

• Our population has increased from 29,738 in 2001 to over 34,000 in 2017 and it will continue to increase. Currently there are over 800 potential housing units under construction, in the "pipeline or proposed by developers with more to come. 

• Health care costs continue to be a concern. 

• Our unfunded retiree health insurance obligation is $93,000,000 (2015). 

• Our unfunded pension liability is $41,346,000 (2016). 

• The FY 18 School budgets will use one time revenues to balance the budget and beyond that they will have few reserves left. 

Franklin is in generally good financial shape today but we will continue to struggle to maintain high quality school and municipal services given the fiscal constraints that we operate under.

I believe we can continue a "level service" budget in fiscal year FY 18. The trend suggests that in FY 19 we will need to use school and town reserves to maintain services. 

Starting in FY 20 the forecast strongly suggests we will face service cuts and/or a tax increase. 

While many departments would like to add employees to better serve the citizens the available revenues leave very few options for expanding the work force with recurring revenues. 

In order to have trne fiscal stability there would need to be a great deal of change in Federal and Sate laws and regulations that drive up the cost of doing business. I do not see any political will to make major changes for the foreseeable future. 

We will continue to do are very best on behalf of all the citizens of Franklin to maintain a high quality of life while trying to control costs to the taxpayers."

Long Range Financial Planning Committee Meeting notes for their 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 sessions can be found in the meeting archive
http://www.franklinmatters.org/p/meeting-notes.html

The 5 year financial plan published in 2012
http://www.franklinma.gov/sites/franklinma/files/uploads/report.pdf

Information provided to candiates for the Town election in Nov 2011
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/01/franklin-ma-long-range-financial.html

road sign on Pleasant St is rather appropriate for this posting, the financial plan contains many hazards

Franklin, MA: Five Year Fiscal Forecast - Draft

This was the draft copy sent to the Town Council on Jan 10, 2014. The 'final' copy is scheduled for discussion at the Town Council meeting on Wednesday evening.

For simplicity, this copy includes the text and not the tables of the forecast itself. The 'final' copy will be published in its entirety.




The full agenda for Wednesday's meeting can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/02/franklin-ma-town-council-agenda-feb-5.html

Franklin Municipal Building

Franklin's 5 Year Forecast - early view

This will be a good document to download, print out and then absorb in detail over your choice of morning beverage. This is an early view on the 5 year plan update scheduled to be finalized in Jan/Feb for Franklin.

Town Administrator Jeff Nutting walked through how the calculations were estimated during the December Finance Committee meeting. The key major departmental budgets are calculated for 'standard' increases. The labor contracts are all known so the increases can be forecasted.

Arlington starts local effort to save school jobs

Arlington, MA has been mentioned recently because of their 5 year plan and is in the news this week with a couple of groups starting a local fund raising campaign to save school positions by raising a million dollars.

The five year plan they put together sometime ago did result in an override that their budget then lived with for five years. Franklin could do something similar but the appetite for such a deal is not likely to generate enough of a movement to get it going considering the override history here.

Franklin, MA: Mid-year Financial Update

The updated financial outlook prepared by the Financial Planning Committee for discussion at the Town Council, Wednesday, April 28, 2010.

Franklin, MA 2010 Midyear Financial Update

View more presentations from Steve Sherlock.

Financial Planning Committee Report - updated

The updated and "final" report from the Financial Planning Committee is on the agenda for the Town Council meeting Wednesday.

You can review (or download) a copy of the report from the Town website here.

Bang for your buck

The Boston Globe "G" section has an interesting table depicting the performance of school districts (according to MCAS scores of the 4th and 10th grades) compared to the assessed home value. Franklin is amongst the top.

No real surprises there. Steve Whalen had put together a similar table and now that table is part of the Financial Planning Committee's report.

If the tax rate was use instead of assessed home values, Franklin would rise higher on the chart.

View the full chart here in the Globe

View the Financial Planning Committee report here

Financial Planning Committee - no show

The Town website said there was a meeting. This notice outside the Town Clerks door said there was a meeting. But while folks were continuing to arrive for a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting in the Council Chambers, Room 205 remained empty. So I left. Nothing else to report about this committee at this time.

"dropped in rank, from 22nd lowest, to 28th lowest"

In 2008, Franklin's rank jumped to seventh highest, with the average Franklin teacher's salary at $66,361, compared with the total average of $63,520.

The group generally agreed that Franklin teacher salaries only appeared to outpace those of their peers because the district has laid off or lost a great percentage of its younger, lower-paid teachers.

Read the full article on the work of the Financial Planning Committee in the Milford Daily News here

Long term planning report

Did you ever review the Financial Planning Committee's report?

Did you miss the Information Forum held on April 27, 2009 in the Mercer Auditorium at Horace Mann?

There is no time like the present then to catch up to this important report. You can find the report in the details of my live reporting from the presentation and discussion on April 27th.

You can also view the 2 hour and 12 minute session on the Town website.

This topic is important to understand. The financial issues that Franklin faces will not go away anytime soon. The Town Council will finalize the FY 2010 budget either on July 15th or an August meeting. The Finance Committee has already approved the hotel and meals tax which will help Franklin obtain a new source of revenue. The revenue gained will not solve our problems. The revenue is estimated to be less than $500,000 per year but every bit helps.

The School Committee meeting on July 21st will finalize their budget for this year. What will be the final number of teachers cut this year?

Financial Planning Committee archives

Feel free to utilize the archives here.

The long range plan produced by the Financial Planning Committee is available on the Town website in two versions: the Executive summary is here (PDF) and the full report is here (PDF).

My notes from the Financial Planning Committee meetings earlier this year:

• Financial Plng Comm 01/15/09
• Financial Plng Comm 02/05/09
• Financial Plng Comm 02/19/09
• Financial Plng Comm 03/05/09
• Financial Plng Comm 03/12/09
• Financial Plng Comm 03/26/09
• Financial Plng Comm 04/02/09
• Financial Plng Comm 04/23/09
• Financial Plng Comm 05/27/09
• Focus Group Collection

Celebrating Franklin

Why reprint the Administrator's messages from September 2008, January and February of 2009?

Did you read them the first time they were published?

Maybe not.

Did you read them now?

Hopefully.

As we get into the 4th of July weekend, "celebrating Franklin", let's look around us and see what is we really are celebrating.

Let's also take some time to think about how we want to continue to live here.

• What services will we dig into our pockets to pay for?
• What services can we afford to live without?

The Town budget used to support the 4th of July. For many years local folks took it upon themselves to create the parade, party, and fireworks. The latest iteration of the 4th of July committee has no under taken a year round fund raising effort to maintain this traditional celebration.

Other services around Town are supported by other similar organizational efforts of people passionate enough to continue a "tradition". These organizations raise money in a variety of methods but ultimately, we, the citizens of Franklin do contribute. The Town can raise money via taxes and other fees, or the organizations can raise money from our contributions. We ares still supporting what happens here.

The long range plan produced by the Financial Planning Committee is available on the Town website in two versions: the Executive summary is here (PDF) and the full report is here (PDF).

Please take time during this wonderful weekend to review the reports.

Please make time in the coming months to make you participation in Town Council, School Committee and other important meetings more of the "contact" sport that Jeff mentioned. Show up.
Put in an appearance (or two).
Become informed.

There will be an election later this year to select Town Council and School Committee. There will likely be a special election in 2010 to consider an override to provide additional funds to support the day-today operations of Franklin that we are celebrating this weekend.

Do not let a day go by without becoming more informed.
Your vote will count.

"It's all about information"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted Jun 25, 2009 @ 11:54 PM

---

FRANKLIN —

Bent on getting their message out regarding the town's precarious finances, the long-range financial planning committee is considering hitting the streets to personally deliver their report to residents.

Hand-delivering the report instead of mailing it would also act as a symbolic gesture, showing how the town is willing to go the extra mile to save money, Doug Hardesty, the group's vice chairman, said at a committee meeting last night.

Getting the 34-page report to every resident should be a top priority, said Councilor Stephen Whalen, a member of the committee.

Among other topics, the report analyzes Franklin's recurring fiscal deficit and a few starting points for fixing the problem.

Next year, the town is looking at a $6 million deficit, Whalen said.

Read the full article about the Financial Planning Committee meeting in the Milford Daily News here.

"Someone needs to be responsible"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted May 27, 2009 @ 11:05 PM

---

FRANKLIN —

Now that their mission seems nearly complete, members of the long-range financial planning committee last night said they want to "keep the momentum going" regarding public interest in town finances.

"People are ripe right now, people are starting to listen," said School Committee member Roberta Trahan, a member of the committee.

The feedback is mostly positive, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting, reading bits of residents' e-mails.

Doug Hardesty, the group's vice chairman and one of two citizens-at-large on the board, said, "Everywhere I go, people are talking about it."

The group spent the last year meeting, researching and compiling a report on the town's finances and fiscal outlook, which culminated in a public presentation on April 27.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Read the live reporting from this meeting here

Financial Planning - Town Forum

This is the collection of posts covering the discussion of the draft report by the Financial Planning Committee taking a long term view of the financial situation we face.

• live reporting - Q&A #2
• Live reporting - Q&A
• live reporting - Doug continues
• Live reporting - Doug Hardesty
• Live reporting - Info Forum - Part 1
• Live reporting - Informational Forum 4/27/09
• Questions for the Forum
• Concerned about Franklin's finances?

FPC - Information Session 04/27/09

The live reporting posts for the Informational Forum held to review the Financial Planning Committee report can be found here:

• live reporting - Q&A #2
• Live reporting - Q&A
• live reporting - Doug continues
• Live reporting - Doug Hardesty
• Live reporting - Info Forum - Part 1
• Live reporting - Informational Forum 4/27/09

"The committee made several recommendations"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Apr 28, 2009 @ 12:26 AM

---

FRANKLIN —

Using the parable of the boiled frog to describe the possible trajectory of Franklin services and finances, Doug Hardesty told an audience of about 100 residents the town needs to immediately tackle its recurring fiscal deficit before the damage is irreparable.

When a frog is thrown into a pot of boiling water, it'll immediately jump out, Hardesty said. When it's put in a pot of room temperature water, and the heat is slowly turned up, the change is so slow the frog doesn't notice. The frog dies before it reacts.

"That's very much the kind of thing we're worried about in Franklin," said Hardesty as he began his presentation on the long-term financial committee's plan last night at Horace Mann Middle School.

"Because we're facing this slow structural problem, it creeps up on us. The question is, what and when do we jump," said Hardesty, an auditor and one of two residents-at-large on the committee.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

live reporting - Q&A #2

Q - the fear that I have is that my taxes are increasing 20% but the services my kids are getting in school is going down. I am okay with paying more taxes but I need to know what that number is. Relive peoples fear. I don't know if you can do what I just asked. I know it is hard but that is what I need. These numbers are scary but with the taxes increase and the schools services being cut that doesn't help.
A - Zollo - in terms of wage earners, most people are not spending the same each year, due to a variety of reasons. Cost of gov't does not go down. Inflation doesn't go down. Costs will go up. There is a built in subsidy. Three children. Avg citizen pays 4500 taxes, per student cost is 9200. The Zollo subsidy covers police, fire, etc. I will have received in the aggregate 250,000. I could stay here forever but I'll never pay it back. What is the reason for bringing it up? If I would educate my children on my own, it would still cost me more. The demand for the twon and housing in the town. The housing thirty years ago will be sold for more now.

If we were closer to the median, we would be in a better position with the adiditonal funds.

A - Whalen - you did a great job describing the difficulty and the challenges we have here. We are a pretty efficient shop. I am a research analsyst and that is what the numbers tell me. It really all comes down to, what kind of town do we want live in?

A - Bartlett - if you look at Page 14, there is the range of the 8.5M and 12.1M.

Q - Have you factored in the assessed values going down?
A - The 2.5% doesn't apply to each individual taxe rate. It applies to the overall town rate.
A - Bartlett the 8.5M would equate to a 22% increase

Q - financial forecasts are not actional, translate to something we can relate to; i.e police or fire, etc. Don't go back and re-do it. Clarification on the health care cost savings of 1M?
A - Roche - the 1M came from the difference in the original projected cost and the recent bid. That is one time savings.

Q - Has the town investigated farming out the tax collection? Hotels, meals tax, how much will it generate? In Florida, they have an impact fee.
A - We get 100% of our taxes, even if they are late we get 14% interest on the amount late. Against the law for an impact fee, it was through out by the courts. We have proposals for the hotel/meals tax but they have not been enacted yet. It would help but not solve our problem. It will diversify our tax receipts.

Q - On the health care side, how does the Town do it?
A - We pay about 7M for all our health care. We have been very successful working with the unions. With an increase of co-pay and a decrease in premium, it makes sense. They have worked well with us.

Q - The state has more people, they must have more bargaining power.
A - Nutting, actually our plan is better than the State plan. We look at it every year.

Q - With teachers at about 60K, can you bring in somebody for less
A - working and wages are subject to bargaining conditions

Q - with the health care, is there an opportunity to work with surrounding towns if we are the lowest, that would be something to gain
A - teacher pensions are not paid for by the town. There are 106 pension systems in the Commonwealth when there should be one. No one would design a system where there are 351 communities in the state. It will be hard to change. We do things like this every year. It is not just a public thing. It takes a lot of momentum to get things done.

Q - For me, a good school is not the thing. The curriculum is the key
A - Nutting - the school committee would agree with you.

Reminder - our meetings are open meetings

Q - split tax?
A - Roche - If we do decide a split tax rate, it doesn't allow us to raise any more money.
A - Whalen - there is a decided majority on the Finance Committee and Town Council not to do so in order to encourage business to relocate here.
A - Zollo - it is worth noting that the residential versus business is 80% to 20%. We would need a more diversified tax base. The time to make your feelings known is in November at the Town Council tax hearings.

Q - page 12 - net school spending, we are descending, based upon what we know today, what are we doing to prepare?
A - This is one of the reasons we have prepared this report.

Q - We need to be more frequent. These are general statements, we need to be more specific.

Q - Why did you get to the 31? You used some in some reports but others in some reports.
A - We picked the towns were the most comparable. We also wanted to use data that anyone could check on. We chose the DOE numbers because they are available. Norfolk was excluded only because they had not submitted their numbers to the state.

Q - My point earlier was the numbers are all good,
A - You're crossing over into a very subjective area. If you're across the board lower, there must be something there.

Q - You're only getting efficiency when there is a comparison on the same services?
A - I can't tell you how we could measure our schools with Walpoles. I see them as facing eminent decline.

A - Zollo - I don't disagree at a statisical level but at a general level it is fair to say, you know reputationally how they are doing. They are not out on the curve one way or the other.

Q - Should you include the grow projections for the school for the next five years? I know it would be beneficial.
A - The numbers are available. The total at the high school is projected to be about 1700

Q - Important to have our local reps (Spilka, Brown, Vallee) look at the legislation in process.
A - thank you!

Live reporting - Q&A

Q - commendation on report, job well done. concerning peer data, if we raise our taxes, is there a guarantee that the state won't reduce and we are back where we started
A - Whalen, put the numbers together, don't think the state looks at that statistic. we should be a below average tax burden with an above average benefit

A - Zollo - if the state minimum is hit, the state will help us determine how the money will be spent. Federal stats say we should have more police/fire but that doesn't matter to the state. It does to the school side of the budget.

Q - should include the school building issues into the 5 year plan otherwise, it wouldn't be a complete report. should update this quarterly
A -those items aren't quantified but they are addressed
Q - those items need to be there.
A - from the committee standpoint, those items are being looked at, there are no firm estimates for those factors to incorporate
A - Cameron - also look at the full report, there are additional details there. We focused on how the funding works for this executive report. We recognize how important this is.
A - Hardesty - information needs to get out, the details should be available when those decisions need to be made.

A - Zollo - the committee debated internally, we will come up with some alternatives, the relaity is what it is. The Town needs to be aware of other capital expenses. The funds for those could come from two sources, (1) Debt exclusion (expires when debt is paid off) (2) override (raises tax permanently). Differences between town fical funding options. But not out of the operational budget.
A - Whalen - in comparison with our peers, we are below the peers in debt service
A - Roche - transparency, dashboard on the website, but once the budget is set, the budget numbers don't really change. In most cases, the state number once given is set, unless there is unique circumstances, the state doesn't take away the money.

- side note - provided advice to the committee that some of the comments are coming across as defensive of the report when they should be soliciting feedback from the community

Q - when is the decision coming on the high school
A - Nutting - the building is not in that bad shape compared to other schools they have been into. We don't know when they will committee. They will not commit at this point. In six-nine months, maybe they'll give us an answer. We don't have it and we are continuing to pursue it.