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The Franklin City Council voted 5-0 at its June 9 meeting to adopt the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 city operating budget and Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), along with tax rates, fees and new fees.

The vote tallies did not reach seven because Ward 2 Councilman Richard Grizzard and Ward 3 Councilman Gregory McLemore were not present for the meeting.

The council votes were preceded by a public hearing on the proposed budget and CIP during which one individual spoke.

Purlie Banks, of the Franklin Electoral Board, asked if the council would consider the board and upgrades to voting equipment as part of the city’s CIP, and if it decided against that, she asked that the council have a plan in place for money to be available when upgrades become necessary.

During the city manager’s report, the council voted to adopt an ordinance to appropriate $90,575,442 for the operation of the city government during the fiscal year beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2026.

The council voted to adopt an ordinance approving the FY26 operating budget for Franklin City Public Schools (FCPS) in the overall amount of $21,299,411.

As part of City Manager Rosylen Oglesby’s draft FY26 city budget, there had been a proposal to increase the city’s real estate tax rate by 4 cents — from $1.03 to $1.07 per $100 of assessed value. This increase of 4 cents would have brought in an additional $312,000.

The council reached a narrow consensus during a June 2 work session to avoid any increase to the city’s real estate tax rate for FY26 by pulling $400,000 from funds that could go to FCPS and by also increasing the meals tax by 1%, if needed.

The council voted June 9 to maintain a city real estate tax rate of $1.03 per $100 of assessed value.

Council adopted an ordinance to increase the city tax on food and beverages (the meals tax) to 8%, which was an increase of 1%, and council adopted an ordinance to reinstate the city tax on cigarettes at 70 mills per pack.

The council voted to adopt an ordinance to impose and levy unchanged taxes on what the meeting agenda described as “retail sales, purchase of utility service, local mobile telecommunication, bank franchise, personal property, downtown service district, lodging, and recordation within the city of Franklin, Virginia, for the purpose of raising revenue for the support of governmental operations and the public free schools and to pay principal and interest on the public debt and the downtown service district for the purpose of technical administrative and promotional services for economic revitalization.”

Council voted to adopt an ordinance to impose and levy fees and new fees for the purpose of raising revenue for the support of city services and enterprise funds.