The Town of Franklin’s general fund balance grew to $12.7 million during the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the audit report presented at the Jan. 5 Town Council meeting.
Lutchia Johnson of Martin Starnes & Associates said the town’s audit received an unmodified opinion. “Which means that we found financial statements to be fairly presented, with no material misstatements that would otherwise be misleading to the users of financial statements. We did not report any findings or question calls. And your report has been submitted and accepted by the LGC (Local Government Commission) with no comments.”
Johnson also commended the town’s staff for being “very cooperative.”
The audit shows the general fund balance growing from $8,200,469 in 2023 to $10,873,006 in 2024 and now $12,733,342 in 2025.
Johnson said the increase of about $1.8 million in the general fund balance was due mainly to property tax collections, unrestricted intergovernmental revenues (such as sales tax, utility tax, ABC profit distributions and occupancy taxes). The district’s fire tax also increased with approval from the county to help purchase a new fire truck.
Johnson said with the fund balance at its current level, the town has about 25 months of expenditures on hand.
On the expense side, Johnson said the general government expenditures increased about 16% (around $205,000), with one of the largest expenses ($61,650) being the feasibility study for the former Angel Medical Center property.
Public safety, transportation and water/sewer all saw increased expenses related to capital improvements.
Johnson said in submitting the audit they noted a “timely audit submission and a stable property tax collection percentage.”
Later in the meeting, Finance Director Sarah Bishop said sales tax collections are starting to slightly decrease from the peak experienced during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic. She said it has taken a little longer than expected to get back to a more normal rate.
“It’s not alarming by any means, but I do believe we are going to start seeing a little bit of a decrease,” she said. “We will see an uptick with the holidays, but it is starting to decrease.” She added that even with collections slowing, the numbers are still a little higher than last year. “We’re just not seeing that growth anymore that we were seeing for a while. Same is true with our investment earnings. Those have been steadily coming down a little bit as well, not at any alarming rate by any means.”
Bishop said she will continue to keep an eye on the sales tax collections as they prepare for the 2026-27 budget year.
In preparation for the budget process, the Town Council approved the budget calendar. The department heads will start working on their budgets in February. A public budget work session is tentatively set for April 20 with the budget being presented to the council at the May 4 regular meeting. A second public budget session will be held May 18 if needed. The public hearing and vote on the budget is set for June 1 in order to have the budget in place when the new fiscal year begins on July 1.
The next Franklin Town Council meeting will be Monday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. in the board room on the lower level of Town Hall.