By a narrow margin this week, Harvard voters approved the $200,000 Proposition 2½ override needed to fund the town’s fiscal year 2009 omnibus budget. The vote at Wednesday’s special town election was 674 to 612. This was the second attempt at an override this year; the first try—for a $786,000 override—was rejected by 86 votes at the polls April 1.
In the wake of the first, failed override, the selectmen, School Committee, and Finance Committee worked for weeks to agree on a new, reduced budget, which required the $200,000 override to fund it. Voters approved that budget at a Special Town Meeting May 21. If this second override had failed, another Town Meeting would have been scheduled to approve a no-override budget by the end of the fiscal year June 30.
The need for an override has been a hot topic for discussion in Harvard, as it has been in many towns this year, but the members of the three boards agreed unanimously that this override was needed to avoid harmful program and service cuts. A zero-override budget would have required $200,000 in cuts to the already pared-down budget, including the loss of teachers, the Town Hall receptionist, a highway worker, and reduced library hours.
