FM #80 - Week Ending 12/12/10

Let's take about 10 minutes to review what matters here in Franklin, MA as the week comes to a close Sunday Dec 12, 2010.

Time : 8 minutes, 43 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes

This internet radio show or podcast is number 80 in the series for Franklin Matters.

In this session, you give me about ten minutes and I'll fill you in on what matters in Franklin as this week comes to a close on Sunday Dec 12th.

This past week, the Town Council approved the smallest capital budget in recent years. While we have 2.1 M in 'free cash' the joint decision (administration and Town Council) was to keep $500,000 for snow/ice and $800,000 for unemployment insurance expense. The snow and ice budget has been growing closer to a realistic number over the years but given the variability in NE weather, and the tightness of the budget recent years, it is better to under forecast it and cover with free cash than to over forecast it. The unemployment insurance pool is being created in case an override fails come May/Jun 2011 and there are a large number of Town and School employees laid off.

The segment of the Town Council meeting covering this capital budget:
http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSL.aspx?indexPointSKU=5qFm%2baJMGjV57Fyb%2f6R%2fsg%3d%3d

As much as some folks still think that the Administration is incompetent, the actions and their results have some quite the opposite. Their performance has shown a high level of stability in the overall budget with lots of alternative planning.

Just flash back to the chart in the appendix for last week's slide cast, the one slide I think makes this point. Look at the variation in free cash over the years. The variability has narrowed in the last several years. The revenue forecasts have been closer to reality, the budget expenses have been managed very closely. Both of these combine to result in 'free cash', which is not 'free' nor really cash. Free cash should be created each year, in a tight and acceptable range, especially given the size of the operation Franklin is running.

Back to the Council meeting, the tax rate was set at 12.95 as calculated and expected. It also continued the single tax rate that I believe rightly should be used here in Franklin. You can disagree if you choose, but the numbers speak for themselves.

The segment of the Town Council meeting covering the Tax Hearing:
http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSL.aspx?indexPointSKU=3dwRSxWPYuVy9u0sTBN5kA%3d%3d


As another sign of good financial management, Franklin is going to fund some $2 M for school repairs with a bond issue. The bond issue will fit within the operating budget and not result in an override consideration. The Council has been operating with a policy of using up to 3.5% of the total operational budget for debt service and has been building some capacity in this area in the last year or so with more expect in the next year as debt retires. This is a good financial maneuver and you can hear more of the rational behind it during the Council discussion

The segment of the Town Council meeting covering the school bond issue:
http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSL.aspx?indexPointSKU=RcYKs%2b0J6JuGZPLL%2fsGOyg%3d%3d


Looking ahead:
School Committee meeting on Tuesday and the next Town Council meeting Wednesday

School Committee agenda is published, the Town Council is not yet available.

School Committee has the anti-bullying plan is the major item on the agenda. The plan was released a couple of weeks ago for feedback and will be voted on during the meeting Tuesday.

While the TC agenda is not available, I did receive an advance copy of the revised approach to the downtown commercial zoning changes. If you were confused by the initial plan, you were not alone. The plan has now been split into three parts, the first part will be discussed Weds. The cover memo and supporting documents were published on Franklin Matters Sunday and the link is included here.

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/12/approach-revised-for-downtown.html

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This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but I can't do it alone. I can use your help.

How can you help?

If you have an interest in covering the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and or the Zoning Board of Appeals meetings, please let me know.

As always:

• If you like this, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don't like this, please tell me

Thank you for listening.

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters Weekly to listen to this podcast

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark and Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

FM #79 - Slidecast - Tax Hearing Info for FY 2011

This internet radio show or podcast is number 79 in the series for Franklin Matters.


In this session, you give me about ten minutes (actually 13 in this case) and I'll fill you in on what matters in Franklin.

Franklin, MA 2011 Tax Rate Information

View more webinars from Franklin Matters.

Show notes:


In particular, we'll prepare for the Town Council meeting Wednesday, Dec 8th, where the big item on the agenda will be the annual tax classification hearing beginning at 7:10 PM.


This is the time and place where the Town Council determines (1) to keep a single tax rate or decides to implement a split tax rate and (2) sets the actual rate.


I have reviewed the data provided by the Board of Assessors for this hearing. I have also spent some time on the Dept of Revenue website updating my files with historical data on Franklin's budget, tax rate, etc.


I have updates last year's slides to share information that I think will help us all understand the overall situation.


Page 2 shows how the tax rate is calculated. Starting with the levy limit from 2010, 2.5% is added. Based upon Prop 2.5%, up to this amount can be added without a special override election. The growth from last year is added. This provides a subtotal. Any prior debt exclusions are added and this provides the maximum levy limit. We can technically achieve this due to rounding factors on the rates. So we have what they call an “excess levy capacity” of $35, 647. This leaves us with the tax levy, the amount that Franklin is authorized to raise this year. The amount is divided by the total assessed values of all the residential, commercial, industrial and personal property.


The package has a number of pages devoted to the property analysis of the residential, CIP to get to this value. The major factor to remember is that due to the overall economic conditions, property values are declining. Divide any number by a declining number and the percent will increase.


Page 3 shows the tax rate as it has varied throughout the years from 1988 to 2011. I really shouldn't use a line to depict the point in time number for each year, but it is much easier to view the data this way. The tax rate high point was in 1997 when it was 14.21% and the low point (in the period shown) was 8.86% in 2007. I find it interesting that the tax rate dropped for ten years in a row (from its peak in 1997), has gone up for the past 4 years, and yet all you hear about is our tax problem?


There are many reasons for the increases shown. I don't have all the information to explain nor do I have the time this week to do so. What I can show on Page 4 is how the assessed value effects the tax rate. The reddish bars in this case depict the NET change in assessed total value of all the properties in Franklin. Since 2006 the commercial industrial assessed values have been in a decline. In 2006 and 2007, the new grown for CI covered the decline in valuation so there was a net grown for CI. But for 2008, 2009, 2010 and for FY 2011, the new growth has not been able to cover the decline in valuation. More importantly, on the residential side, the decline in valuation has far exceeded the new growth. Hence the overall decline in total assessed values has dropped from 4.9 billion in 2007 to 4.1 billion for FY 2011. With less of a tax base upon which to levy the same amount of tax revenue, guess what, the tax rate will increase. The decline in overall assessed values has driven the increase for 2008, 2009, 2010 and will do so again in 2011.


Well, Page 5 more clearly shows what our tax problem is. The numbers on this chart depict the average tax bill for the period 1988 through 2010. As you can see from the reddish bars, in no year did the average tax bill decrease. The tax rate line from Page 4 is also shown here. Clearly, the tax rate whether it goes up or down seems to have little effect on the tax bill. It is always going up.


Page 6 - shows a table showing the residential vs. commercial/industrial property mix since 1999. It has varied a little each year but generally around 80% residential and 20% commercial/industrial. The high point for residential was 82.12 in 1988 and the low point was 77.04 in 1993.


Page 7 shows the same numbers in a chart format. As there is so little variance, I think this more clearly depicts the small range that the commercial/industrial and residential split has had over the years.


Why did I spend time on the CI vs Residential split? I can hear some folks now saying “let's go with a split tax rate”. With kind of property mix we have, a split tax does not solve our problem. See, the split tax does not increase overall tax revenues, it only shifts the proportion of the pie that each party pays as shown on Page 8. For a single dollar decrease in residential property tax, the CI increase would need to be $4. We don't need to shift the tax burden from one to another. We need to grow the overall tax base. We need a bigger pie.


The best opportunities for grow come from the underutilized CI space we have. You should be aware of the efforts of Bryan Taberner and others in the Department of Planning and Community Development. The Economic Summit held at the former Putnam facility on Washington is a key example of this effort. They are busy working to market the attractiveness of Franklin for CI uses. This is where we need to develop. We don't need additional residential properties which would further burden the school system. In particular, the residential growth we have seen recently has been mostly in the rental unit arena and that is even worse for Franklin than a single family home. We need healthy growth in CI properties to provide tax revenues and provide some jobs for local residents.


Page 9 provides information on the sources of the data that I used to prepare this.
Page 10 provides my contact information if you have any questions or would like to review this further.


One page in the appendix that charts the “free cash” to “free cash as a percent of the overall Town budget. I think the current administration has done very well in reducing the fluctuations that can be seen over the years. The big spike in FY 2001 I believe is likely related to the settlement that the Town won. It ended up in “free cash” before the Town Council moved it to the Stabilization Fund.




For the week ahead:


Town Council meeting Wednesday


Cyberbullying event at Dean College on Thursday. Perry Aftab and the teenangels from the Franklin School District will be presenting an information for parents on bullying.


I would encourage you to participate in these events.


Thank you for listening!


The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark and Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view this slidecast.



Franklin, MA

FM #78 - MCAS 2010 - Franklin, MA

This is #78 in the series of internet radio shows or podcast for Franklin Matters.


This podcast is linked to the presentation made by the District Leadership Team at the Franklin, MA School Committee meeting on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 to create a slidecast.


The agenda item is introduced by School Committee Chair, Jeff Roy. The group presenting is introduced by Michelle Kingsland-Smith. Several members of the Leadership Team take part in the presentation and they announce themselves as they begin each section.


At the end of the presentation (about 50 mins), there is a Q&A section (approx 22 mins) with the School Committee. To help you listen and follow along, I have duplicated each slide that was the subject of the question as it was asked. Hence, the overall presentation document is longer than the original which can also be found online at the link included.

2010 MCAS - Franklin, MA

View more webinars from Franklin Matters.

I'll concur with the comments about the quality of the presentation, this is one of the better ones I have seen. The data is clear, well organized and while it does raise some questions (deliberately in some cases), answers to the questions were well prepared for.


As I close this session this week, let me remind you that

• If you like what I am doing here, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don’t like something, please tell me

Thank you for listening!


The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark and Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view this slidecast.


The presentation as reported on live during the meeting:

• Live reporting - MCAS - part 3 - Q&A
• Live reporting - MCAS - part 2
• Live reporting - MCAS - part 1

The original copy of the presentation:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/11/franklin-ma-mcas-2010-presentation.html


Franklin, MA

FM #77 - Franklin, MA: Mid-term Review

Let's take about ten minutes to look back at what the Town Council and School Committee have accomplished at the mid-point in their two year term.


Time: 9 minutes, 29 seconds



MP3 File


Session Notes:


This is #77 in the series of internet radio shows or podcast for Franklin Matters.


I took the title of Community Information Director because Franklin needs one and unfortunately with the budget issues can not afford one. I do what I do to share information with my fellow citizens. I have a unique perspective on Franklin by having participated in more than 60 meetings this year; Town Council, School Committee, FINCOM, Financial Planning Committee with a few Planning Board and Conservation Committee meetings for some variety.


A shortened version of this will be presented to the Town Council and School Committee meetings this week during the citizens comment.


Mr Chairman, members of the (Council/Sch Comm)


As elected officials, you are now one year into your two year term of office. You all started this term in Nov 2009 and will either be re-elected or have some new members as a result of the election in November 2011. Focusing on the Town Council and School Committee, the two major elected bodies, let's look at what you have accomplished during this first year.

• Biotech bylaw zoning changes were made
• Charter changes were approved and partially accepted by the voters
• A very informative Budget workshop was held in January
• A balance budget was passed after an override failed and additional personnel/services were cut
• New trash/recycle vendor and process introduced, some scars were created during the process but the implementation is an accepted benefit now
• Abatements and adjustments for seniors were approved
• Downtown revitalization planning underway
• Economic Summit held to tout the benefits of doing business here

Next year, as you well know, will be a tough operational budget year with a possible high school renovation project on the horizon with a debt exclusion for a sum total uncertain at this time.


The operational and capital needs of the Town are not well understood by the general population.
You can not accept that. If you do, you give into the CAVE people What are the CAVE people? An acronym for Citizens Against Virtually Everything. This a great term that Bill Glynn took back from a conference he attended with other members of the School Committee and School Dept Administration


If we assume perception is reality, and your attendance indicates your level of effort, then there is room for improvement for some of you.

Details for the chart can be found at the following Google document




I understand that there may be very good reasons for missing meetings
You do this because Franklin matters to you for a variety of reasons


Let's assume perception is reality, I recommend you take a series of actions to really help improve the outreach to our community


1) Member of the Council meet at the Senior Center regularly; Bill Glynn held a sit/chat during the summer; need to do something for the remainder of the residents on a regular basis


2) plan for another budget workshop or series of workshops


What of the Long Term Planning Committee?
This group sort of disappeared after the override, it is good to see the group on the agenda for the meeting Wednesday. Maybe we'll find out what is going on


The Finance Committee is getting reduced from 11 members to 9 per the one question that passed on the Charter Changes. They are scheduled to meet in December. How is the change going to be handled?


3) Get out in front of the big issues, be proactive, don't let the void be filled in by others with hearsay, determine the conversation


For the School Committee in particular, I believe your normal year end meeting is scheduled to be held in the training room on the 3rd floor. It is your own review session, I would heartily recommend that you change the location, bring the meeting out into the open, broadcast it, foster the engagement with your community.


I could have done some ratings in a variety of ways. I chose not to do so. It was deliberate. I think you have been able to observe my own actions, you know I don't create screaming headlines. I am not out to sell anything. I am working to share information to create an informed voter. You can help in that effort.


Consider yourself a crew team. The crew team needs all the oars in the water swinging in synch with one another to succeed.


I think you for your service to the community.
I thank you for your time tonight.


As I close this session this week, let me remind you that

• If you like what I am doing here, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don’t like something, please tell me

Thank you for listening!

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark and Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to listen to the audio podcast.