First, my disclaimer.
I know Mayor Tom Taylor. I know the Franklin aldermen.
I like them all. I respect them all.
End of disclaimer.
They let taxpayers down in 2007.
For most of the year, I harped about the Franklin School Board, the Franklin school district, and Franklin school taxes.
However, I strive to be consistent and fair. The same scrutiny I placed on the Franklin Public Schools needed to be focused on Franklin City Hall.
Our taxes are very high. As I wrote during my series on the top Franklin issues in August:
“A few months ago, a successful Greenfield businessman I know (who resides in New Berlin), unaware of my home community, asked me where I live.
When I told him, his immediate reaction, without hesitation, was laughter.
“Oh my goodness,” my friend said. “How do you put up with those high taxes?”
It’s a common reaction outside the 53132 zip code.
“Franklin’s nice, but those taxes are really high.”
“Aren’t your taxes outrageous?”
“How can you afford to live there?”
When Mayor Taylor submitted his budget proposal to the Franklin Common Council, it called for a 5.7% increase in the city tax levy.
Mayor Taylor is my friend. I consider him to be a good, decent, honorable man. However, an increase of 5.7% in the city tax levy is unacceptable.
It was now up to the Franklin aldermen to make some serious and difficult decisions on behalf of the beleaguered taxpayers they represent.
Didn’t happen.
Did the Franklin Common Council consider any cuts in the Mayor’s proposed budget? Any?
The Common Council essentially rubber-stamped the Mayor’s budget and the city tax levy is going up 5.7% next year.
Remember, in November of 2006, city of Franklin officials were far from fiscally responsible when they approved a budget with a 5.3% increase in the tax levy and a 9% increase in spending. The argument was that it could have been a lot worse.
As I wrote in one of my first blogs in late January:
“The citizens of Franklin are blessed to have devoted representatives working on their behalf. Mayor Tom Taylor and the entire Common Council are to be commended for their efforts. More municipalities in the tax hell we call Wisconsin should follow the lead of Franklin in exercising fiscal responsibility.
However, we can do even better. A spending increase next year of 9% with a tax levy increase of over 5%, I feel, is a bit unfortunate. The counter argument of, “Franklin: Our tax increase could have been higher,” just wouldn’t look good on a bumper sticker or a Chamber of Commerce ad. I challenge my friends at City Hall to use their talents to tighten the reins even further. Doing so will help retain and recruit more jobs, and prevent more gifted taxpayers from putting up the For Sale signs. I would issue the same challenge to members of the Franklin School Board. Wisconsin has the highest property taxes in the nation. The people who pay the bills deserve a break.”
Maybe they missed the news that Franklin is, indeed, a tax hell.
The Franklin Mayor and the Common Council failed to protect taxpayers, and on this particular issue deserve as much criticism as the Franklin School Board.
THE TOP 10 FRANKLIN STORIES OF 2007
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8) FRANKLIN CITY TAX LEVY GOES UP 5.7%
9) SUPERINTENDENT SZAKACS FORCED OUT
10) THE LACK OF PROGRESS AT FOUNTAINS OF FRANKLIN
