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Franklin City Council weighs alternatives to a proposed 4‑cent real‑estate tax increase
Summary
Councilors spent an extended session discussing five options to address a roughly $312,000 shortfall tied to debt obligations and rising liabilities, including across‑the‑board cuts, a meals tax increase paired with a smaller real‑estate hike, eliminating planned employee compensation increases, and trimming school non‑SOQ funding; no final budget was adopted.
Franklin City Council used a special meeting to re‑examine the city’s budget gap and consider ways to avoid a proposed 4‑cent increase to the real‑estate tax.
City Manager briefed council that long‑term debt obligations, recent accounting for compensable absences and prior reliance on transfers and fund‑balance withdrawals created structural pressure on the general fund, producing a roughly $5.88 million budget gap in the broader planning context and a near‑term shortfall of about $312,000 tied to the 4‑cent real‑estate change. The manager said the real‑estate tax yields roughly $77,775 per penny and warned that some previously used balancing methods were unsustainable.
Staff offered five options for council consideration: 1) modest across‑the‑board departmental cuts (example: a 1.5% reduction yielding…
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