News
Minutes and action items from 1/6 meeting
Minutes and action items from 12/16 meeting
What is CPA
The Community Preservation Act provides a way for Middleboro to raise money to protect the qualities that make our town special. With it we can preserve open space, historic buildings, enhance our community housing options, and expand recreational facilities such as parks and playgrounds. Every dollar we set aside for CPA is matched by the state by up to 100%.
Middleborough has, and will continue to do the things that CPA helps us with such as open space and historic preservation. The question is will we use CPA to get matching funds or will be borrow money and pay to service the debt without CPA? Will we adopt CPA to show the local commitment required to get state and federal grants? Or not? CPA is free money that we are passing up.
CPA will help us better plan and control our own destiny by giving us the money we need to purchase parcels of land that might otherwise be turned into housing along with matching state funds. Every subdivision or house that is built in Middleboro introduces costs for the school system and town services such as police, fire, and EMS. Middleboro has shown a commitment to preserving open space most recently with the purchase of the Gibbs and Freitas properties. CPA would allow us to better plan these purchases rather than having to borrow money at Town Meeting that we then pay back with interest.
In short – it allows us to do the things we are already doing in a more controlled fashion and with matching state money.
How does it work
The town would elect to apply a 1-3% surcharge on property taxes. The first $100,000 is exempt as are properties that qualify for low or moderate income housing. For the average home that is assessed at $326K per year, this would amount to $1.32 per week. The state would match our contribution using money that comes from fees at the registry of deeds. This amount in the past has been 100%. This year it was 65% and will be lower next year to due the current economic crisis. Whether the matching amount is 100%, 50%, or the state minimum 5%, it is free money that gives us control and predictable funds to plan our preservation activities in a more strategic fashion.
The Mechanics
Once adopted, the town will form a Community Preservation Committee that recommends CPA fund expenditures – which must then be approved at Town Meeting. A minimum of 10% of the CPA monies must be spent on the core areas of open space protection, historic preservation, and providing community housing. The remaining 70% may be spent in any of those areas in addition to recreational purposes.
The argument against CPA
I’ve spoken to literally hundreds of people about CPA at this point. The arguments against fall into two general categories. One – that all government is bad, CPA is a government program, and therefore it is bad. Two – that CPA is just another tax.
On the first objection: If a person hates and mistrusts government, there is nothing that can be said to sway them on CPA. They will argue that CPA is some sort of trick to make us pay more taxes and that the state will change the rules after we adopt it or cut the matching funds. First of all, CPA is so popular that I don’t believe the state would dare to change it substantially. If they do – we can opt out. The changes that have been proposed are all big improvements such as fixing the minimum match at 75% and allowing funds to be used for existing recreational facilities instead of just new ones. We all mistrust government – let’s just be sure that we are judging CPA on it’s merits rather than based on some vague generalized mistrust of government.
The second objection that CPA is just another tax – CPA will cost the average Middleborough homeowner 92 cents per week. That money will bring in matching funds and probably grants as well. It will also allow us to slow or stop costly development that would strain our schools and services. I am fully convinced that these things make CPA a fiscally wise thing to do.
In short CPA pays us now with matching funds and grants, and it pays us in the future in reduced costs related to development(schools, road, infrastructure, services)
Other taxes disappear into the gaping maw of town government. CPA goes into a specific fund that that brings us real benefit – matching funds and grants. CPA money brings us tangible things – land that we own, historic properties we have acquired or saved, recreational facilities or housing that we have created. Calling CPA just another tax is inaccurate.
Links and Resources
If you have any questions about CPA, or would like to get involved, contact Mark Belanger.
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs CPA page.
The Community Preservation Coalition web page