The information provided here over the last several weeks hopefully has help you to understand the Franklin budget problem. To review all that has been written you can check the Franklin Override Collection.
I think the numbers and arguments are convincing.
Franklin needs to pass the May 22 override for a number of reasons.
If you think you should vote NO, I would like to know what your objections are.
Please feel free to let me know, via comment or email (shersteve at gmail dot com). I look forward to the discussion.
I am undecided on my vote, because I lack the information to fully support a yes vote. This will sound bipolar, but I am for fully funding the schools in Franklin, while fundamentally against voting yes to additional taxes.
ReplyDeleteI look at this issue in two sections. First, is the school budget appropriate for this town and the service level we expect.
Once the town and school department finalize a fair budget that supports the mission, the issues moves to the town level. If the town believes that the schools are the most important service offered for tax dollars, why aren't the schools fully funded. To me, the override isn't to pay for the schools, it is to pay for the lower priority services.
In order to get comfortable with issue 1, I have specific questions on the school budget?
#1 - why does the school budget need to increase 13% when the student population over the past 5 years has increased at a rate of 1.4%? Even factoring inflation in at 4%, the increase should be more on the order of 6%. see http://www.franklin.k12.ma.us/co/supt/budget/20YrEChart.pdf and calculate annual growth rate.
#2 - what are the $1.2 million in teacher health insurance and $350k compensation reserves? I remember hearing that a change in teacher health care would save the town money. This appears to cost an addition 1.2 million. And the $350k appears to be total fluff.
#3 - Where is the full budget and operating plan for 2008? Why is this not available on line?
From a town level, I'd like to know what services would be eliminated if there was a mandate to fully fund the school budget. Would the town eliminate 100% the library and recreation departments? Would DPW projects be delayed or eliminated? I'd rather have an override choice on these matters as opposed to fully funding DPW and mostly funding recreational activities at the expense of quality of schools.
At a town level, what other ideas have they pursued to fund things like recreation, library, senior services etc. Many towns have sponsorships for recreational teams and have advertising around fields. These items could replace tax dollars and provide a benefit to businesses operating in Franklin. I'd like to see some creativity as it relates to funding operations, especially recreation.
What do you think? Why are you comfortable with these items?
Anonymous, I don't follow your analysis on school population increases versus budget increases. The growth in school population has been less recently but the special education and other state requirements are increasing faster than the population hence the increase in the budget. So the factors to understand the increases lie beyond Franklin. I don't pretend to understand them all, which is why much of my information is linked to the DOE web sites.
ReplyDeleteAs for the town council priority, they should explain. I do not endorse their position. I think they should have fully funded a level service budget for all the town services which would have meant voting for a $4 million override. We don't get to cast that vote however. We only get to vote for $2.7 million. So voting no, would leave us in a worse position and that makes no sense to me.
As for the options and creativity, the time is past for those questions right now. I recommend participating in future town council and Finance committee meetings to raise those points. They are valid but moot at this time.
The question for May 22 is simple,
do we provide $2.7 million more to provide some level of service comparable to last year or do we live with less services?
My vote is yes to provide more and avoid the service cuts.
Then I'll get to the Finance and Town Council meetings to press for a 5 year operating budget so we will have a better understanding of what the future holds.
I hope to meet you there.