Meeting in an emergency session, the Select Board voted Thursday morning to convene a Special Town Meeting Friday, Dec. 17, to correct a mistake in the total amount appropriated by Town Meeting for the current fiscal year.
The mistake was made in the motion for Article 3, the omnibus budget, when it was put to the first session of Annual Town Meeting in May this year. Simply put, the motion asked for more tax dollars than necessary to pay for the town’s expenses in fiscal 2022. The mistake was failing to subtract $914,332 in local school grants from the amount to be raised through taxation. Attendees at the Special Town Meeting will be asked to correct the error by reducing the amount to be raised, also known as the levy, from $30,711,262 to $29,796,930.
“It’s not often you get a chance to vote to reduce your taxes,” quipped Select Board Chair Stu Sklar at Thursday’s emergency meeting. But correcting the error is urgent, he added. Third quarter tax bills cannot be calculated until the amount to be raised has been settled. And once this year’s tax rate is determined, it must be approved by the Department of Revenue before bills can be mailed. Getting all of this done by Dec. 31, the deadline for mailing third quarter fiscal 2022 tax bills, leaves scant wiggle room for the two weeks it will take to prepare necessary paperwork for the DOR and get the agency’s approval.
In a phone interview with the Press, Town Administrator Tim Bragan said the error was discovered by DOR and that he and Finance Director Jared Mullane had learned of it only yesterday. Invoking state law that allows for emergency board meetings on short notice, Sklar posted an agenda yesterday afternoon. Alice von Loesecke was on vacation, but the other four board members were present and voted unanimously to call a Special Town Meeting for Dec. 17 and approve the warrant.
The meeting warrant contains two articles. The first reduces the amount to be raised by taxes by $914,332. The second, included at the request of Harvard’s bond counsel, asks the Special Town Meeting to ratify the votes of the second session of Annual Town Meeting in October.
The meeting will convene Friday, Dec. 17, at 10 a.m. in upper Town Hall. Harvard’s Charter requires that at least 50 voters be present. Every board member needs to bring 10 friends, said Sklar.
