FM #1728 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1728 in the series.
This session of the radio show shares the Finance Committee Budget Hearing, the Last of 4 sessions to go over the FY 2027 budget. The meeting was held in Council Chambers with 7 of 9 members present.
Quick recap:
This session was time well spent by the Committee to review the potential adjustments to the budget and come to a consensus on them. They started with a set of goals and a process to work through the listing of the items for discussion based upon what had occurred over the prior three nights.
They wanted to minimize use of free cash. The end proposal recommends $1.8M of free cash rather than $2M
They wanted to move some of the regular recurring 'capital items' to the ops budget where they belong. They took a step in that direction with less than $100K of police gear putting that in the Ops budget. Next cycle those items won't need to come before the Capital budget as a request
They made a strategic investment in a couple of positions. One already in the budget for a part time clerk in the Assessors office, and additional hybrid inspector/admin help for the Building Commissioner's team. This should help the assessors and inspectors to do the work they need to do while providing some additional administrative help to help the work flow and improve our permit and tax base (both revenue generators)
They proposed reducing the Facilities expense budget
They confirmed the need for restoration of the Deputy Town Administrator and the School Resource officers (SROs)
They will request that the Schools look as possibly using more of their revolving funds to help balance their budget and in turn free up more free cash on the Town side to not be used for the overall budget
The complete set of the adjustments will be written up, presented by the FinCom to the Town Council and Joint Budget Subcommittee. The line item adjustments will be made and incorporate some other updates for the Town Administrator to issue a revised budget proposal before the Council gets to finalize their vote at the June 10th meeting. It may not be ready for the May 20-21 Council budget hearings, the key item that still might be outstanding before those hearings is the FY 2027 health costs as the annual enrollment completes April 30
Let’s listen in
Audio link - https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1728-finance-cmte-budget-hearing-4-04-09-26/
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Franklin TV video is available for replay - https://www.youtube.com/live/3oIsBHQ73Ts?&t=1170
The amended agenda doc - https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04092026-2222
My full set of notes in one PDF - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NzSDXoQxk7P0ztXRKjPpcPTPrZgBNE78/view?usp=drive_link
Dept of Arts, Culture & Creative Economy metrics as referenced by Cory Shea during the budget hearing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zQV7NQTLRSy1UnPKxad0wtW8Q-76YqOc/view?usp=drive_link
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The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.
I hope you enjoy!
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