Sunday, January 22, 2012

Week ending - Jan 22, 2012

This could be a pivotal week for Franklin. The School Building Committee meets with the MSBA on Wednesday to see what the 'final' word is on the new high school proposal. Assuming the MSBA accepts the proposal, Franklin voters will have 120 days to approve funding for the project via a debt exclusion.

A debt exclusion is an increase in taxes for a specific period of time. In this case, it would be for 20 years. The debt exclusion differs from an override which while it is also an increase in taxes, has no end period. It becomes a permanent increase to the tax revenue.

Franklin has only approved one override (of 8 total offered to the voters) and has generally approved each debt exclusion although it has taken a couple of tries for some of the debt exclusions to pass. The more recent debt exclusions for the school buildings have all passed on the first try.

You can review the history of debt exclusions and override votes here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkwjbnXDBhczdDVWaFU0N2ZsTEE2TUVuWHk5NURvQWc&hl=en_US#gid=0

This was compiled from the official Franklin records and confirmed with the Commonwealth of MA records.

Back to the high school proposal. Assuming it passes the MBSA on Weds, then the School Building Committee is scheduled to come before the Town Council on their agenda of Feb 1. The agenda discussion will be around the election date and the ballot question. The election date currently targeted is March 27.

Stay tuned here for developments on this story. Franklin stands to gain a $104.5 M high school building for only $47 M (our portion). This is a good deal. You can find additional information at the new website put together by the "Citizens for a new Franklin High" http://www.newfhs.com/


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Location: Franklin, MA 02038, USA

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