I have been involved with the town budget, either as a participant or interested citizen, for the last eight years. I want to applaud the Harvard Press and Mr. Kassel for tackling the biggest issue we face, the town budget, with such clarity and depth in last week’s article “Paying for the future: Officials say balancing debt and taxes requires a longer-term plan.” What I found disconcerting was the “sky is falling” tone.
What wasn’t mentioned was the real reason that average property tax bills have actual doubled from 2001 to 2014, from $4,724 (30th in state) to $9,400 (20th in state); two words: state aid.
In 2002 state aid to Harvard was $4.5 million; in our current fiscal year, fiscal 2015, it is approximately $3.5 million (essentially flat for the last four years). If state aid had just kept up with inflation (2 percent per year) from 2002, it would now be approximately $5.5 million, over $2 million more than we receive now. Two million dollars finances a lot of debt.
I would argue that a better way to look at it is: in 2002 state aid was 23 percent of the town budget; now it is 14.5 percent of the budget. So yes, we and every other town in the commonwealth turned to property taxes as the way to address this gap, or cut services. Virtually the only path open to us was increasing property taxes.
Yes, our property taxes doubled in the last 13 years. Yes, we have few services and low costs due to that, but just looking at 5 to 7 percent of our budget (the long term debt) is no way to address this.
The time value of money can be argued, but in 1994 if you told me I would be living in a $600,000 house (appraised value), I would’ve said, “No way!” Funny how that works.
Short answer, the state needs to step back up to support the cities and towns that make up our great commonwealth. Our reliance on property taxes might have been a good idea in the 19th and 20th centuries, but times have changed.
The sky isn’t falling … yet. I look forward to a discussion of how to keep Harvard sustainable and the special place that it is. Hint: we need to look outside of our town borders.
Stu Sklar
Scott Road
