Sunday, November 25, 2012

Time to set the tax rate

We come out of the Thanksgiving holiday into a busy week. The School Committee meets on Tuesday. The tax rate hearing is scheduled for the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Nov 28th. The annual Holiday Stroll takes place on Thursday, Nov 29th beginning at 4:00 PM.

School Committee Meeting
Scheduled on the agenda is recognition for the Girls Soccer Team for their recent State Championship. A presentation on the latest MCAS data, a change in the current school year calendar (the addition of two reduced schedule days for both elementary and secondary students), and a discussion on the proposed Capital Plan for the facilities and technology needs of the School District.

The full agenda for the School Committee meeting including links to several of the key agenda items can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/franklin-ma-school-committee-agenda-nov.html

Town Council Meeting
The tax rate hearing is procedural and based upon math. If the overall Franklin property valuation goes down, the tax rate will go up. It is that simple! Given the recent economic conditions, to see the overall residential property values decline 2% and to see Commercial/Industrial values decline a half percent (.5%), then the tax rate will go up. It is simple math. Even if the automatic 2.5% increase in tax was not included, the tax levy divided into a smaller tax base will raise the rate. Franklin has seen rate increases since the rate bottomed out in 2007. I expect that we'll continue to see something of a rate increase for the foreseeable future.

I have updated my analysis and explanation of the tax rate information and that is summarized here:

Franklin FY2013 TaxRateInfo


The full Town Council agenda will be posted on Monday
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/franklin-ma-town-council-agenda-nov-28.html


Holiday Stroll
Sponsored by the Franklin Downtown Partnership, start at Dean College for the tree lighting and then visit the other businesses downtown to check out their happenings. A full listing of events is available on the Downtown Partnership page here
http://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2012/11/more-holiday-stroll-happenings.html



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