To the Editor;

Did you know that if you live in the City of Franklin, your real estate taxes increased 17.35 percent in the year 2007 or that your personal property taxes increased 2.99 percent?

These are appalling figures, and you can only understand this in the following context.

In the year 2007 there were approximately 8,750 people living in the city and probably a few less.

In 2007 the city budget reached more than $50 million.

To be extremely fair, let’s use those figures, since nothing better is available.

When you divide the $50 million by 8,750 people, you will find that the city spent $5,714 per person. On the Internet, we cannot find a city of comparable size that spent anything close to that amount. Southampton County, with all of its new school construction and other large expenditures, spent just over $4,600 per person.

It appears that the Franklin City Council deserves a good dose of economic, as well as, common sense. By voting for Barry Cheatham in Ward 1, and Benny Burgess in Ward 2, both of whom are financial analysts and certified public accountants, we can reverse this entire scenario.

Dale J. Parsons

Rowland B. Vaughan Jr.

E.B. Gatten Jr.

Franklin