A posting on Nextdoor brought an unusually swift response from Town Hall this week.
On Monday, Oct. 1, David Burnett of Stow Road said on Nextdoor he had been wondering what had become of the home-rule petition passed by majority vote at Annual Town Meeting in May that would cap the property taxes of qualifying seniors. So he called Town Hall. He was told the town had heard nothing from the Legislature, where the petition had presumably been sent. He was advised to call Harvard’s state representative, who is Jennifer Benson. “So I called today and found out,” he wrote. “It appears that whoever at Town Hall was responsible for submitting the home-rule petition didn’t.”
The following night at Tuesday’s Select Board meeting, Town Administrator Tim Bragan admitted the error. “There was a communication error on my part between town counsel [Mark Lanza] and myself,” he told the board in his biweekly administrator’s report. “That was corrected today [Oct. 2] and the legislation has been submitted.” Included with his report were copies of letters and supporting documents sent to Rep. Benson and State Sen. Jamie Eldridge on Oct. 2 asking them to file the petition on behalf of the town.
The submission, Bragan wrote, “does not delay any action,” because the town’s representative and senator would not be submitting the legislation until after the statewide November elections, when the current Legislature meets one last time before January, when a new Legislature is sworn in.
The tax cap petition was not the only legislation sitting on a Town Hall desk since May. A second measure, allowing the town to appoint a single assessor, has also languished since Town Meeting. Both are now on their way to Benson and Eldridge.
“I am grateful for the gentleman [who] started the thread,” wrote Bragan in his report to the board. “It made me catch an error on my part.”
To become effective, the two petitions must be approved by a majority of both houses of the Legislature and signed by the governor. Once approved by the Legislature, the new bylaw must be approved by a majority of voters at the next Town Election. A spokesman for Rep. Benson said both petitions would likely be introduced in the House of Representatives in November and could be passed by a voice vote in informal session before the Legislature adjourns at the end of the year. The same is expected of the Senate.
