The town could recover $100,000 to $200,000 in special education money it spent last year because of the state’s circuit-breaker extraordinary relief program, town Finance Director Lorraine Leonard told the Finance Committee at its Tuesday meeting. At a recently attended “town accountants’ school,” she said, she learned of some additional money available to reimburse special education expenses. Jay Sullivan, one of the speakers from the Department of Education, told the accountants that the relief program is “free money.” This program allows school systems to apply early for reimbursement if they know they are going to submit 25 percent more in claims than they did the previous year. Harvard is eligible for relief this year, but Leonard had understood that although the program provided a way to receive emergency funds without waiting for the regular submittal after fiscal year end, relief reimbursement would then be deducted from the total year-end figure. According to Sullivan, districts can apply for the relief and still submit a full claim for reimbursement, hence the “free money.”
Three million dollars is available in the total state pot and the amount Harvard receives depends on the number and amounts of claims filed against it. Leonard anticipates anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 in unexpected help from the state. To be sure that she was hearing correctly, Leonard spoke to Sullivan after the lecture and asked him to verify his statement, which he did. According to Leonard, the schools did not submit a request for relief money because they decided that it was more important to have the funds for next year’s special ed budget. Knowing now they can have it both ways, special education Director Charles Horn is working overtime to submit a claim for extraordinary relief by the deadline this week.
Finance Committee Chairwoman Debbie Ricci had more encouraging news. It appears that the draft budget from Governor Deval Patrick shows about $100,000 less than expected in charges to Harvard for retired teachers’ health insurance, which could be the result of overcharges in previous years, she said. Town Administrator Tim Bragan added that the number is not yet final, isn’t likely to be before the end of April, and may be offset somewhat by other fluctuations in the budget. He explained that the draft budget was delayed by the extra month given a new governor. Ricci said that although the news came too late to apply to this year’s override, it can still lower the increase to property taxes.
