Franklin Township supervisors adopted a 2026 budget Tuesday, but had to hire a third party to rectify the bookkeeping.

Residents aren’t likely to see a tax increase next year, despite officials not knowing where its ending balance will be.

Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously adopted the 2026 budget that will leave the millage rate at 8.64 mills.

Supervisor Fred Kemmerer Jr. said Tuesday the board approved hiring a consultant from Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors earlier this month.

“So after our last budget, we could all attest that we’re having problems, so we sought help and that group is in the midst of doing all of our financial QuickBooks stuff,” Kemmerer said. “What happened is our QuickBooks weren’t up to par for the last nine months, and what they did is they went through from 2012 all the way to present and made sure that all of our financials were reconciled.

“Our financials hadn’t been reconciled since last December, so that’s a problem,” Kemmerer said.

Kemmerer said the budget had to be adopted. It can be reopened in 2026 if necessary.

“In order to move forward with doing any type of drastic moves, we were faced with putting together this budget based on what we had and we were at a very big disadvantage, but speaking to the group that is doing our financials and our QuickBooks, they said that they’re going to have that done the first week of January,” he said. “It’s almost done now, there’s a lot of stuff that’s not in because since October, we haven’t had any of our payrolls hit our QuickBooks, so financially, we’re at a disadvantage of knowing where our ending balance is going to be.”

Agreement

In an email to township supervisors on Dec. 9, consultant Diana Patton said she has done “probably close to 800 to 1,000 of these over the last 25 years that I have been in business with my company Numbers Made Easy Consulting.”

She ended with the concern that the township’s QuickBooks Program is from 2021, which is no longer supported by Intuit.

“It is my recommendation that you upgrade to Enterprise Solutions, which is QB Desktop but the Cadillac (version) and now the only version you can purchase,” Patton said. “It is a seamless transition and well over 500-plus municipalities have upgraded to it in the past year.”

At its Dec. 16 meeting, the board approved the proposal received from Numbers Made Easy Consulting in the amount of $2,350 for updates on the township’s computer system.

Kemmerer said Patton will create a new file for the township for 2024-25 and forward, and will also separate files into their own funds.

“We essentially did the budget blindly, and we had a whole bunch of other problems; we didn’t have any realistic numbers,” he said. “We just went off of what the last year’s numbers were and just plugged those in; what Diane is doing is she’s diving into it.”

‘Solid financials’

Kemmerer expressed confidence that the township is in solid financial shape.

“This is a good sound budget to get us through this year and into next year with the premise that we’re going to know 100 percent in a week exactly where we’re at,” he said. “I’ve had conversations with her a bunch of times in the last week, she agrees that there shouldn’t be anything drastic yet until we definitely know where we’re at.”

Outgoing board Chairman Jason Frey also weighed in on the situation.

“Until we know exactly where our QuickBooks is, we know what we proposed for our budget and we know the numbers are good what we proposed, but it’s knowing what our expenditures and where we actually sit with our funds is the big question,” Frey, who did not seek reelection, said.

Frey suggested holding the line on the budget, and that the new board can reopen the budget and go from there.

Kemmerer said Patton said no matter what the budget is, it should be balanced.

“Forever I think that we’ve gone through and we (quote, unquote) know that there’s a carryover that’s going to eventually balance out the budget, but logically we’re not supposed to run into a New Year’s budget knowing that it’s not balanced,” he said. “So there’s an amount that we’re going to have to once we reopen it allocate reserve funds to our revenue to make it balanced because there’s a portion of our budget right now that is a deficit.”

The deficit can be removed once the exact numbers are known.

Frey said that’s done every year with the carryover, and that gets put into cover the difference between expenditures to the revenues.

“I think with the budget we’ve proposed for 2026, only having a difference of $33,000 between the two, I think it won’t take much,” Frey said. “But again, it could change.”

Kemmerer said the township has a reserve.

“Whatever the amount is, we’re going to find that out within the next week, so it’s not going to be something that’s going to take up all of our reserves, that’s for sure, but there’s a difference,” Kemmerer said. “Having it that close is a good indication that we’re doing something right.

Frey said Patton said the township’s 2023 and 2024 budget audits were not filed. He said he was able to find the 2023, but did not find the 2024 yet.

“So I’m going to be doing a little bit more hunting tonight with the help of you guys and see if we can’t locate them so we can get them off to her so that they can get filed and be properly documented, because I want to be in compliance with the state with all the documents,” he said.

Citizen disputes ‘sound budget’

Resident Jill Renfrew said she didn’t agree with Kemmerer’s assertion about the 2026 budget.

“Fred, I don’t know how you can call it a sound budget when you don’t know if it’s accurate, you don’t know what we have,” Renfrew said. “I actually reviewed the budget that you handed out to the public and had numerous questions on every component of it.”

Renfrew added she thinks it’s a “terrible embarrassment” to the township that it doesn’t know.

“I’m embarrassed, and I hope that you recognize how serious it is that those in charge don’t know our financial situation,” she said.

Kemmerer noted that for the last how many years, the township had former secretary/treasurer Brenda Cressley, who had a handle on everything.

Cressley retired, effective March 31, and assistant secretary/treasurer Christine Green resigned March 7.

Mary Fairchild was unanimously approved as the new township secretary/treasurer, while Francesca Pope was appointed as the new assistant secretary/treasurer.

Earlier this month, supervisors approved the termination of employee No. 130, effective Nov. 24. Supervisors said the employee was from the township’s administration department but did not disclose the name.

“We recognize it,” Kemmerer said. “I agree it is embarrassing that we were asleep at the wheel.”

However, Kemmerer added, “I know we’re a healthy township,” and assured that the township is at a point where it’s not floundering like a lot of towns, as in his mind, Franklin Township is in the best shape of any municipality in Carbon County.”

Proposed general fund expenditures were projected at $2,787,310, while projected revenues are at $2,754,099, a difference of about $33,000.