Town Finance Director Lorraine Leonard said this week that Harvard should receive $155,000 more than expected from the state for the 2008 fiscal year. Almost all of this “found” money, she said, comes from the refunding of a previous year’s overcharge to Harvard’s retired-teacher benefits. In addition, those benefits will not increase as much as expected next year. As a result, Leonard said, what had been estimated to be a $100,000 increase in retired-teacher-benefits charges turned out to be a $54,000 decrease, or a net of $154,000 in Harvard’s favor. She explained that the other $1,000 comes from new revenue in the state proposal that exceeds the amount she used to create the budget.
Leonard’s information confirms what is shown on the Department of Revenue’s website for the estimated state local aid revenues and charges for Harvard. These revenues and charges, traditionally referred to as the Cherry Sheet for the color of the paper on which they were originally printed, are developed in a months’ long process, starting with a budget proposed by the governor, which then goes to the House Ways and Means Committee
Although the Ways and Means Committee’s budget proposal has yet to be debated on the floor, and a similar Senate process follows that of the House, Town Administrator Tim Bragan said Tuesday that he is cautiously optimistic that the numbers developed in this committee and shown on the website will stick. “Every indication is that the numbers that are there are it,” he said.
Leonard also said that she recently attended a Department of Education and Department of Revenue round-table meeting, where those in attendance were told to use the House Ways and Means budget proposal numbers as shown. “They have confidence that, if not exact, they will be very close,” Leonard said, “and we should use them in our budgets.” Although the current proposed numbers for Harvard include $36,000 less than the Governor’s version in school funding, the overall change benefits taxpayers.
According to Leonard, if there is no town meeting vote to spend this money before November or December—when the town’s final budget for FY08 is filed with the state—the effect will be to close out the tax levy at $155,000 less than the ceiling approved at Annual Town Meeting and the polls, thus decreasing the amount of the increase to property taxes. She cautioned, however, that with town and school union contracts still unsettled, there is no way to predict what additional funding needs might require a special town meeting.
