Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett is proposing an approximately $22.4 million budget that increases employee insurance and salaries and adds funds for a new comprehensive plan, a human relations position and new equipment, among other items.
The 2025 proposed budget and salary ordinance were presented to the Franklin City Council on Monday. The proposed budget is 10.58%, or $2.1 million larger than last year’s budget of $20.2 million. The largest proposed increases come from the Planning and Engineering Department for a new comprehensive plan, the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office for the rearrangement of office positions, salaries and an additional human relations position and the Board of Public Works for insurance and infrastructure.
Other areas of increase include the fire department fund for pension and turnout gear, the law fund for additional legal needs because of growth and the Greenlawn Cemetery fund for gravestone repairs. Public safety takes over half of the proposed budget — 62.3% — with expenses in the Information Technology budget for $120,000 per year for body cams that are on a five-year pay schedule and the Cumulative Capital Development fund for a new $950,000 ladder truck.
“I think [this budget] falls in line with the other ones,” Barnett said. “[For] the fire truck, we broke that out and added that into this budget, where in the past we may have just gone back for a special appropriation. If we would have broken that one out — that $950,000 and not put that in the budget — the increase overall wouldn’t have looked as much, however, it would have been the same.”
Barnett said the move to add the fire truck to the budget is for transparency. That way both residents and the city council are more aware of the expense.
On Monday, no one spoke during the public hearing held for the proposed budget and salary ordinance. Although the council voted to approve the salary ordinance Monday, the proposed budget is expected to be adopted at the council’s Oct. 21 meeting.
Employee insurance
According to Barnett, salaries and insurance costs are two biggest increases for next year’s budget. There is a proposed 7.2% increase, or $1.5 million, in the 100 series which includes wages and insurance.
With a total of 195 employees, the city will pay approximately $4.5 million in insurance for 2025 — $1.3 million more than in 2024. That is approximately $23,000 per employee per year, he said.
Employees will contribute more to their insurance at $165,000 collectively in 2025. In 2022, employees contributed $120,000 annually to their insurance.
Rising costs contributed to increasing employee insurance. The city council voted to appropriate $1.1 million for insurance costs in 2024 and will possibly appropriate approximately $1.3 million in 2025. The amount they will have to appropriate will decrease to $300,000 in 2026 and 2027 to stay on track, Barnett said.
“I feel like we got a lot of good people that work for the city and we want to maintain those people and let them know we’re happy with what they do,” Barnett said. “You can tell people are happy working because they’re smiling and they’re trying to help people, and that’s why we want to keep those people that want to help.”
Salary raises
Barnett has also proposed raises for city employees in 2025. Most employees and elected officials will receive $2,000 to $2,500 in raises next year, including the mayor, clerk-treasurer, judge, board of works facilities supervisor and a few public safety positions.
The council members will receive a $500 raise. Each member will be paid $9,302 for serving on the council.
Employees receiving higher raises include three clerk-treasurer support specialist positions spanning from $4,000 to $8,000, fleet maintenance technician at $3,000 and the Senior Planner I employee in the planning and engineering department with a $5,000 raise.
“We had one planning person that’s been here for a long time that I’ve been trying to get him up a little bit to get where he deserves to be,” Barnett said. “So we were able to get him where he needs to be this year.”
There used to be four clerk-treasurer support specialists but it has been reorganized to three employees who have assumed those duties, Barnett said. This made room for the city to hire another HR position with an annual salary of $66,000.
Several positions in the police and fire departments, such as lieutenants, the chief, deputy chiefs, sergeants and patrol officers, will get $3,000 raises, while other positions like the crisis official, evidence officer, bookkeeper, office manager/computer, public safety officer and civilian inspector positions, will receive a raise between $1,000 to $2,500.
Barnett said he doesn’t believe in giving a certain percentage raise to every department because he believes that creates inequality among employees. Instead, he is a proponent of giving the same amount of money to each employee, instead of the same percentage.
“So you hear people say, ‘Well, I give a straight 3% raise to everybody.’ I don’t do that, and the reason I don’t do that is because if you’re making $80,000 and you’re making $40,000, your raise will be very little and this raise [for the $80,000 salary employees)] goes up a lot,” he said.
Taxes, other changes
Property tax rates will decline by a little over half a percent with a projected rate of 1.0715 in 2025. In 2024, property tax rates were budgeted at 1.0775. Property taxes are broken down with 50% going toward Franklin Community Schools, 37% toward the city, 10% towards the county, 2% toward the Johnson County Public Library and 1% toward Franklin Union Needham township.
Assessed value is growing, projected for 2025 to be at approximately $1.6 billion.
Barnett said he can’t say whether a resident’s individual taxes will go down because that’s dependent on a variety of factors, such as other taxing districts or what a property is assessed, which are different for each property owner.
There were also other small changes in the budget, like increases for office and operating supplies, travel and training and professional services and infrastructure. The 2025 proposed budget also helps get the wastewater treatment plant budget on track after being previously under budget, with the help of recently-approved new water rates.
Barnett said the city plans to spend $1.2 million out of the county economic development income tax budget for the remaining portion of the U.S. 31 project. It is a state project and is supposed to go to bid in December and get started next spring. He said the city is paying approximately $4.2 million of the $60 million project. By paying into the project, he said the city was able to add trails and crosswalks to the stretch of roadway, which he says is “pretty huge to have” along the corridor.
Barnett also put approximately $1 million into improvements and infrastructure, including for crosswalks, alleys, sidewalks and paving streets. For example, the city may put a crosswalk by Farm Girl Mercantile next year. He also put $150,000 into sewer drainage projects because Barnett said the city is always trying to improve drainage.
