The following letter was sent to Town Administrator Tim Bragan and the Press.
Mr. Bragan:
Perhaps I have been traveling too much so I might have missed it when the selectmen and the members of the School Committee and the budget committees discussed living within our means.
Inflation has been below 2.5 percent per year for several years now. Yet over the past several years, the voters of Harvard have been asked to approve overrides well in excess of that amount each year. This year’s request is for a 12 percent increase in taxes—that’s almost five times the rate of inflation!
The Friday, January 26, issue of the Harvard Press quoted Lucy Wallace as saying, “This is the town we want and this is what it costs to run.” That statement contains two hidden assumptions which could be challenged.
The first hidden assumption is that the mythical “we” wants the town to continue on its current path of reducing its tax-base by being unfriendly to businesses. The town’s current policies induced my physician to move his practice to Westford. Those policies also appear to have induced a Toreku tractor dealership to move to Ayer. A few years ago those anti-business policies induced Cisco Systems to build its facility in Boxborough rather than in Harvard—where it has proven to be a valued member of Boxborough. The town’s anti-business policies also appear to have prevented a supermarket from building on the site formerly occupied by the tractor dealership. My physician and the Toreku dealer were fortunate in that they were not tied to the land as the farmers of Harvard. The farmers do not have the luxury of moving their orchards to another location.
The second hidden assumption is that the town must continue to maintain the standard of spending to which many people in the town have become addicted. While it may be true that maintaining that standard of spending will cost the taxpayers of Harvard 12 percent more for fiscal year 2008 than it cost in 2007, the question, “Can we afford to continue spending at these levels?” has apparently once again not been asked.
The real issues are more of the form: It will cost the taxpayers of Harvard 12 percent more if all the assumptions that went into creating the proposed budget are accepted as being accurate. Tax inflation at four to five times the inflation rate seems to suggest we should examine the underlying assumptions used to create the proposed fiscal year 2008 budget .
Most of the residents of Harvard understand that they and their families must live within their means. I find it rather disheartening that not all of the members of the three boards in Harvard seem to understand that very basic economic principle. At issue is not what we want; at issue is what we can afford. If we insist on funding what we want but cannot afford, we may soon find the town of Harvard quickly joining that club that over the years has included Quincy, Millville, and Springfield.
Harry F. Armstrong III
Elm Road, Devens
