Franklin MAtters Weekly: The Town of Franklin has an FY 2027 budget with only minor changes to what was proposed

The FY 2027 budget has been approved, what remains is to close out the FY 2026 budget by June 30.

The Town Council spent 8.5 hours over 2 nights in May for their FY 2027 budget hearing and then almost another 5 hours to get through the 40 plus budget votes and ancillary matters at their June 10 meeting.

One take away that should be remembered: While some members of both the Finance Committee and Town Council expressed interest in not using free cash and finding ways to cut the budget to balance, the votes were not where to do so.

Another way of putting it is that both the Finance Committee and Town Council "validated the budget.” The amount and areas of change from the original proposal to the approved version were minimal.

Now let’s see that effort put toward the strategic plan to really get a fix to the structural issues we have. Significant savings have occurred to the budget over the past several years due to the reorganizations by the Fire Dept, Police Dept, Finance Dept/Human Resources (Town and Schools) and the major savings from the Schools redistricting. Those savings have helped but that can’t be repeated. Time to focus on the revenue side.

The Town Council meeting Wednesday, June 17 has a few measures to help ready the book of accounts to get closed out for FY 2026 as of June 30.

Also of note on the agenda are the appointments for the expiring terms across multiple boards and committees. While the majority of volunteers are renewing, there are about 20 positions on 8 boards/committees that remain open. Check out the listing of those and see if one might be something you could take up.

For all the meetings and cultural events, check out the calendar at Franklin.news where each day, that day's events are posted on the top of the page, the TV and radio schedules are on the bottom, and all the other goodness falls in-between.

Audio link - https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1763-fm-weekly-outlook-lookback-combo-06-14-26/

*** Event & Meeting schedule (with agendas) as of Town pages 6/12/26, 9:00 PM ***

Franklin Housing Authority Meeting

Monday, June 15 Time: 4:30 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06152026-2351

Community Preservation Committee - CANCELED

Monday, June 15 Time:

Massachusetts Strategic Health Group Meeting

Tuesday, June 16 Time: 1:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06162026-2367

Design Review Meeting

Tuesday, June 16 Time: 7:00 PM