Phillips Brooks House Will Sponsor Efforts To Urge Student Vote For Prop 2 1/2 Override

A group of undergraduates is planning a campaign to urge the Harvard community to vote to override Cambridge's Proposition 2 1/2 tax cuts in the city's April 13 referendum.

Organizers of the group--sponsored by the Phillips Brooks House--said yesterday they hope to alert students and other Harvard-affiliates to the potentially damaging impact of prop 2 1/2 on the University.

"If the city calls on Harvard to pay for service cutbacks" caused by Prop 2 1/2, "a tuition raise could indirectly result," said Ellyn J. Kestnbaum'83, president of the student service group.

And City Councilor David Wylie said that if the effort to override the tax cut proposal fails. Harvard will have less fire protection, a higher crime rate, and fewer administrators for the rent-controlled apartments that some students live in.

The PBH project will focus on showing students the dangers of the tax cuts, said group organizer Elana Shavit '82.

Locally registered students could be influential in repealing the measure, she added.

Campaign Plans

The group tentatively plans to encourage voting by postering widely, distributing pamphlets stressing the effect of Prop 2 1/2 on Harvard, and possibly sponsoring a phone bank on the day before the referendum. The group used the phone bank strategy in its unsuccessful attempt to defeat the original Prop 2 1/2 resolution in November 1980, Kestnbaum added.

April's referendum includes two propositions. The first would raise taxes next fiscal year by $5 million, and requires a majority vote for passage. The other measure, which would hike taxes by $10 million, needs the support of two-thirds of the electorate. Should the referendums fall short, Cambridge personal and property taxes would be cut by 15 percent, amounting to about $10.2 million.

Chip Faulkner, associate director of The Citizens for Limited Taxation--an organization which has worked against the Prop 2 1/2 repeal in other communities--yesterday opposed repeal, arguing that even though Cambridge voted against the original referendum. "People have liked lower taxes and should vote to keep them."

1980 Balloting

In the 1980 balloting, voters in the city of Cambridge voted against Prop 2 1/2 by 24.306 to 14,427. Faulkner said he doubts whether Harvard students have the clout to influence April's voting. But David Sullivan--a City Councillor who fared well in the election district that encompasses Harvard--disagreed, saying. "The Harvard student vote is very important in what could be a very tight race."