June 12, 2026 Town Council Approves FY27 Operating Budget and Capital Investments
The Town Council approved the Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) operating budget, establishing the Town's financial blueprint and funding priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Please read the short, two-page FY27 Budget Snapshot and Summary of key investments and highlights of the budget process: FY27 Budget Snapshot and Summary (PDF). The FY27 budget review process began with the Finance Committee conducting several budget hearings totaling more than 17 hours of review and discussion. Throughout the process, committee members worked closely with Town and School officials to evaluate departmental requests, review financial projections, and develop recommendations for the Town Council. The Franklin School Committee and Town Council have met jointly twice since the election, showing voters that collaboration is at the center of the work plan for the legislative session. Many members have been also attending their respective meetings and working very closely together through this budget season. The FY27 approved budget does not include any proposals for an override, tax increase or other new rate increases to balance the budget. The budget also does not include any proposed reduction to key town departments, including the Franklin Public Schools (FPS), Fire Department, Police Department or Public Works, Senior Center or Library. These approvals represent important milestones in advancing Franklin's operational, capital, public safety, and community preservation priorities for FY27. With the budget now approved, Town departments will move forward with implementing the programs, services, and investments outlined in the fiscal year plan. The FY27 budget reflects a collaborative effort among Town Councilors, Finance Committee members, School Committee members, Town and School staff, and department leaders to support the services, infrastructure, and community investments that residents rely on while maintaining a commitment to responsible financial planning. Check out the two-page budget snapshot and summary: FY27 Budget Snapshot and Summary (PDF) Take a Closer Look: FY27 Budget Archive Explore Town budget archives dating back to 2016: Franklin Budget Archive Center View it on website |
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Town Council Approves FY27 Operating Budget and Capital Investments for Franklin, MA
Sunday, June 7, 2026
Franklin, MA: Agenda for Town Council - FY 2027 budget discussion and vote - June 10 at 6 PM
Finance Committee votes to recommend FY 2027 budget, a minor adjustment to round 2 of Capital Authorizations (video)
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Finance Committee closes out 16+ hours of budget hearings with proposed adjustments (audio)
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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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.
This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.
How can you help?
If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like something here, please let me know
And if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach out. We’ll share and show you what and how we do what we do
Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
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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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
2 Part Audio for the Town Council Mtg March 4: authorized fire truck, approved goals, & heard total exp on snow & ice now exceeds $2M (audio)
FM #1684-85 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, numbers 1684-85 in the series.
This session shares part of the Franklin (MA) Town Council meeting held on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. The Council held this session as scheduled beginning at 6 PM. All 9 Councilors participated for this 4 hour plus session.
1684 - The Opening, and all agenda items except the goals which they saved for last (approx. 2 hrs. 7 mins)
1685 - Discussion on the goals brings them right up to the 4 hour limit which they managed to stay within (approx. 1 hour and 55 mins)
Audio 1684 - https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1684-franklin-ma-town-council-mtg-03-04-26-p1-of-2/
Audio 1685 - https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1685-franklin-ma-town-council-mtg-03-04-26-p2-of-2/
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Additional notes on the meeting recap can be found (including link to Franklin TV video) ->
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2026/03/town-council-authorizes-fire-truck.html
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| Engine 3 is the fire truck authorized to be replaced |
We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.
This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.
How can you help?
If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like something here, please let me know
And if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach out. We’ll share and show you what and how we do what we do
Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
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!
------------------
You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"
Monday, January 26, 2026
4 hour Finance Meeting recording in 2 parts for convenience: P1 - economics of development, P2 - capital budget (audio)
FM #1643-44 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1643-44 in the series.
This session shares the Finance Committee meeting conducted Wednesday, January 14, 2026. 8 members of the Committee participated, 1 absent.
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| 4 hour Finance Meeting recording in 2 parts for convenience |
The recording is in 2 parts:
P1 for the economics of development
P2 for the capital budget
Quick recap ->
Board of Assessors and Town Staff: The Economics of Development, residential valuations are based upon residential property sales and comparables. Commercial Industrial valuations are more complicated in that there is a revenue factor for how much money the operations is actually making (confidentially reported to the Assessors) along with several other factors. The repeated phrase was "it's complicated"
We did hear that there is NO issue with water supply or sewer capacity. Police and Fire are understaffed (but managing as best they can for the volume), Schools built extra capacity as part of the redistricting effort. The per pupil amount talked of is not what each net new student would cost. There are existing capacities to handle some number of students without adding a teacher
Part of the agenda included an update on the abatement process which was not covered and seems to be deferred to a future meeting (TBD)
The capital budget first pass was approved after a lengthy discussion. Town policy calls for funding multiple stabilization accounts, this year only the OPEB account was proposed for funding due to the budget shortfall and that it had not been funded last year.
The OPEB fund resolution passed 8-0-1 (1 absent)
The first pass at the tier 1 capital requests accounted for $1.8M and was proposed to amend to remove the sprinkler system work required at the Senior Center. The amendment was meant to reserve the additional $750K for the potential budget deficit. The motion to amend after a lengthy discussion failed by a 1-7-1 (1 for, 1 absent, 7 against removal for the item). The vote on the original resolution passed 7-1-1 (7 for, 1 against, 1 absent)
The recording for Part 1 - Economics of development runs just over 2 hours
The recording for Part 2 - the capital budget runs just under 2 hours
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Franklin TV video for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaC9XFahY1M
The agenda and released documents for this meeting -> https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01142026-2089
My notes collected in one PDF -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qRDOyvDbYn1A5DqogXU-4DpgjpwYvRNH/view?usp=drive_link
-------------
We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.
This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.
How can you help?
If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like something here, please let me know
And if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach. We’ll share and show you what and how we do what we do
Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
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!
------------------
You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"