Today, I write an open letter to the governing body and citizens of the Borough of Franklin. It’s another year and another Notice of Property Assessment. But there has been an asterisk on the notices with “reassessment district” written on them. If I am correct, this has been going on since 2024. If memory serves in 2023, the governing body authorized a municipal wide reassessment in all zones.
To put things in prospective, Franklin’s governing body did not authorize reassessments for over 10 years before 2023, another deception in itself. The budget was always padded and used saving to plug holes to balance the budget. The past governing body did a good job to keep the tax increase with in the 2% tax cap.
OK, here’s the deception, when the Notice of Assessment went out, all of a sudden the citizens noticed that their housing assessments increased. There was fury on Facebook about the increases and some noticed close to doubling of their municipal taxes. In a feeble attempt to stamp down anger, some on the governing body tried to show the budget had “no tax increase”. Yes, the governing body is correct in theory that the budget has no increase but the assessment is a stealth tax of major proportions. Just to remind the citizens of Franklin that during this time, housing prices have been on a meteoric rise. This sounds not unlike the new governor’s idea on how to get electric rates under control in New Jersey by freezing the rates at the highest prices customers are currently paying.
I would like to challenge the mayor, councilmen, and Councilwomen to answer the below questions:
It’s been three years now, how many years are the reassessments going on for? Did the commercial and industrial zones get reassessed yet? Where is all the “pot” money going?
And to those voters of Franklin:
Is this what you voted for? Do you believe the governing body has our financial interests at heart?
In closing, this deception goes on all over; it’s unfortunate that the Franklin’s governing body caught on to it. As H.L. Mencken said, “Democracy is a theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard”
Well, we are getting it, good and hard.
Stephan Zydon
Franklin