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Community Preservation Act The Community Preservation Act(CPA) is a state statute which individual communities in the Commonwealth may choose to adopt; Lexington adopted the statute by a vote of Town Meeting in 2005 and ratified by Lexington voters in 2006. CPA communities impose a surcharge on their own property taxes of up to 3%, and funds raised from the surcharge are restricted to use for projects in four categories: community housing,historic resources, open space and recreation. To support expenditures in these areas, the state "matches"the funds raised by the community surcharges annually at a certain percentage. Lexington elected a 3% surcharge on both residential and commercial taxpayers. Mindful of the burden on homeowners, however, the Town also adopted provisions which exempt the first $100,000 of home value from the surcharge and grant a total exemption from the surcharge to lower income residents. In fiscal year 2018 (FYI 8), the annual surcharge averaged$377.95 billed per Lexington household. Our commercial and industrial taxpayers were billed $896,545.52 in FYI 8,representing approximately 19% of our billed CPA surcharges. In its initial year, FY07, the surcharge brought in approximately$2.5 million dollars which was fully matched with state funds. Since FY07, annual revenue from the local surcharge has steadily increased. Latest figures are available for FYI 7, for which the surcharge raised$4,442,893. However, state matching funds, which come from a surcharge on Registry of Deeds transaction fees, have fallen since FY08. Lexington's FY18 state match totaled$789,905 or 17.8% of its surcharge. Initial estimates from the Department of Revenue (DOR)projected the FYI state match distribution at just 15%. While slightly higher than the initial estimates, the FYI state snatch percentage (distributed in November 2017) is the lowest distribution since Lexington's adoption of the Community Preservation Act. The decrease in state matching funds is due primarily to an increased number of communities passing CPA bylaws therefore competing for limited funds and stagnant recording fees collected at the state's Registries of Deeds. The current transaction fees have not been adjusted since the CPA was signed into law in 2000. In 2016, a record 16 communities in Massachusetts placed CPA adoption on their ballots. 11 of those communities voted during the November election to adopt the Community Preservation Act, including the cities of Boston and Springfield. While most of the adopting communities voted for just a 1% or 1.5% surcharge, the impact of these additional communities on future state disbursements will be seen in FYI 9. Lexington has benefitted from surplus transfers from the state budget to the CPA Trust Fund in previous fiscal years but that trend ceased when the FYI state budget closed with a $0 balance. It is unlikely that the FY17 state budget will provide any surplus funding. While Lexington's FYI state match is at an all-time low, CPA advocates believe this actually strengthens the argument for a permanent fix to the CPA Trust Fund. A piece of legislation entitled,An Act to Sustain Community Preservation Revenue (H.3662), calls for 2