The 2023 Spring Town Meeting booklet is headed to the printer, with the blessings of both the Select Board and Finance Committee.
The Select Board kicked off its meeting Tuesday night with an article-by-article review of the document, voting to support all 27 articles after a half-hour discussion led by Town Administrator Tim Bragan. The vote of the board was unanimous. The Finance and Capital Planning and Investment committees made their recommendations last month, approving, without exception, the spending proposals within their domains.
By tradition, Spring Town Meeting deals with financial matters to ensure a balanced budget is in place by July 1, the start of the next fiscal year. The 2023 warrant includes the $32.4 million budget—aka “omnibus budget”—that spells out what the town will spend next year to provide residents with the municipal and school services they expect. Harvard taxpayers will be on the hook for $27 million (84.4%) of that amount, the rest coming from state aid, fees, and other sources.
As has been the town’s practice in recent years, Town Meeting booklets will not be mailed to residents. Instead, Harvard households will receive a postcard bearing a QR code which, when scanned by a phone or other networked device, will link the user to the online booklet. A limited number of copies (Town Hall would not say how many) will be printed for distribution to Town Meeting attendees April 29. The 52-page document is available at: https://www.harvard-ma.gov/home/files/finance-committee-report-atm-2023.
