Illegal Actions of Village Council

Our Village Council recently voted on a resolution to request doubling our general tax rate. This is not only illegal, but is a terrible idea which would create a slush fund for pet projects that would not require any oversight from residents.

Thankfully it did not make it on the ballot, because the illegality was brought up to the council, but residents need to take a look at what is going on and how recklessly our officials spend our tax dollars.

Legal Issues

1. A General Tax Rate > 3.5mills is Illegal

The Village of Franklin’s Charter limits the amount of general taxes the government can levy on us to 3.5%!

Pam Hansen and David Goldberg who are both candidates for village of franklin trustee voted to violate this law, illegally raising taxes Village of Franklin Headlee Rollback ballot language november 8 ballot proposal initiative. Millage tax increase michigan
Chapter 10 Section 4 of the Village of Franklin’s Charter Limits general tax to 3.5mills

This does authorize an additional 1.5mills exclusively for fire protection services…but this is not what the council was asking for. They wanted to double the general tax to pay for overspending, to 5mills as shown below.

Village of Franklin Headlee Rollback ballot language originally proposed for november 8 ballot proposal initiative. Millage tax increase pam hansen, david goldberg, david sahli, michigan
Ballot Language Does not Designate this Additional 1.5mills to Fire Protection, so is Illegal

2. It is Illegal to Run a Deficit Budget

Our Village Council is prohibited from running a budget with expenses exceeding revenues.

Pam Hansen and David Goldberg who are both candidates for village of franklin trustee voted to violate this law, illegally approving a budget with revenue less than expenses. headlee rollback ballot proposal initiative november 8 vote Michigan
Chapter 9 Section 9 legally requires a balanced budget

They are attempting to work around this by transferring money…but transfer of money is NOT revenue, so this is also illegal.

Other Concerns

If we ignore the fact that this is illegal, and a resolution like this violating the charter should never even have been passed there are still valid reasons we as voters should not approve such a measure.

1. The Request is WAY HIGHER than Required

It is clear our council has not been responsible stewards of our tax dollars and have been spending more money than they take in, so I completely understand why a tax increase is needed, but the amount and reasoning given by them makes no sense.

  1. Add ~1 mill to cover deficit spending bringing the rate to 3.5mills
  2. Add 1.5 mills to build the funds back to the level they should be at

The first point I can understand the council needs to make more revenue to cover their irresponsible spending. The second is a just crazy especially since this council has a history of asking for more money than is needed and then using it for purposes other than what it was approved for.

The second point is they want to restore fund balances by ~700k, but they are asking us to give them ~600k extra per year building a slush fund of 5.3Million over 10 years.

2. VC has a History of Asking for More Money than Needed to Fund Pet Projects without Oversight

Village of Franklin Streetscape cost estimate used to approve second half of bonds, lower than original. Michigan

What did our Council tell us about this extra 2 million used for Lighting and the Streetscape?

  • They saved over two million by being fiscally responsible and having excellent project management controlling costs

That was a lie. The maximum contract was 11.8 million, never 14.5million as documented to the left, but they borrowed 2.7 Million more than needed to fund future projects!!!

3. VC Spends Money Recklessly & Illegally

While illegally running the government in a deficit, they approved raises, new positions, funding for many items, just a small sampling is below.

  • Increased funding of MSF to $20,000
  • A expensive PR firm $43592/yr1
    • Includes $4410 or more for PR for summer block party
  • Admin budget increased by $184,590
    • Includes $74,700 for MSF Economic Dir
  • Study for sidewalks along 13 mile new funding $25,0002
  • Water Study new funding $25,0002

Footnotes

  1. PR firm retainer was $2,500/month, value shown was average cost from monthly bills lists in available council packets.
  2. Mark Hanke, the self proclaimed financial expert added two items totaling $50,000 at the last minute, even though the budget already illegally had expenses > revenue.

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