A Message From the Mayor
Posted on: September 26, 2023 - 1:23pm
Citizens of Franklin,
Last night, Choose Franklin held the Candidate's Forum and there appeared to be some misunderstanding of some budget issues. While the best place to find out how our tax cap budget works is the budget itself, the City Manager's Budget 101 presentation, is also an excellent review. I just want to highlight a couple of budget things.
First, I want to offer an apology to Candidate Tom Boyce. During his comments, he reminded folks about the $20M bond and that it would come up again. I laughed at that comment, not at Candidate Boyce as he thought, but because I feel that another $20M bond proposal to the Council will never happen based on public feedback. Nonetheless, that is how he took it, so I do apologize for that.
Our budget is tied to a tax cap that uses the CPI-U, Consumer Price Index-U plus any pick-ups from home improvements, etc., not previously included. Therefore the City Council has no opportunity to "raise taxes" as we can only collect what the tax cap formula allows. Yes, the CPI-U has been high the last couple of years due to inflation, but other than moving money around in the budget, the bottom line must remain under the tax cap as it has since the tax cap was voted in in 1989.
There was also some discussion of the TIF - Tax Increment Financing. The TIF is a method of funding public improvements with the incremental taxes created by new construction, NOT current taxpayer dollars, and with incremental taxes created by new expansion, or renovation of property within a defined area of the community. In return, these municipal improvements serve as the spur to additional development, which generates tax dollars. It is these tax dollars, again, NOT current tax payer dollars, that are used to pay the cost of the improvements directly. The TIF dissolves when there are no more projects in the district and all future tax dollars revert to the general fund, benefiting all taxpayers. Again, the funds for these investments come from future tax revenues, not otherwise expected to occur, generated by increased public and private investment in identified, under performing areas such as our Mill District.
There has also been discussion regarding the $1.4M figure that was authorized for use in the TIF district by two Resolutions. The first was Resolution 21-18, passed May 7, 2018, by all members of the Council present at that meeting and signed by Mayor Giunta. This authorized $1M to finance this amendment with tax increment from the TIF district. The additional $.4M was Resolution 06-20, which was passed unanimously by all 9 councilors and signed on November 4, 2019 by Mayor Giunta. Again this was using tax increment from the TIF District as the funding source-not current tax payer money. These rules have been in place since the TIF was approved in 2016 by Mayor Merrifield.
Several candidates talked about new ideas they would like the Council to consider and we are glad to hear about them! As was mentioned several times, we need to work together as a community and together find the best solutions for our city. So again, I remind all of you about the return of City Spirit Advocate DOJ representative, Derrick Dean, to Franklin on October 16, 5:30pm at Peabody Place. I invite all of you to join us to work together to make Franklin the best it can be.
Again, please vote next Tuesday, October 3rd. Polls are open 8am - 7pm and the polling places are: Ward 1 - Lodge of Elks; Ward 2 - City Hall; and Ward 3 - Franklin Middle School.
Thank you!
Jo Brown, Mayor
City of Franklin