Cities and towns across the state must be breathing a sigh of relief this week, after the defeat of Question 1, which would have eliminated the state personal income tax. We applaud voters who, after careful consideration, realized the catastrophic impact this would have on schools, property taxes, public safety, and infrastructure. Based on the passion we heard in arguments in favor of the measure, we were concerned that it might actually pass, exacerbating problems Harvard is already dealing with in the form of a financial structural deficit. But it wasn’t even close; the question lost at the polls by a vote of 69 percent to 31 percent. Now townspeople can unite in supporting town officials as they go about the urgent business of figuring out how to bridge that deficit.