2011- 03-00-CPC-ATM-rpt - Laserfiche WebLink

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Since Lexington’s adoption of the Community Preservation Act in 2006, the CPC has recommended and Town Meeting has approved the funding of $23,300,147 for CPA projects. These funds have supported 42 historic preservation projects, preserved 52.4 acres of open space, created or preserved 8 recreational facilities, and created or supported 172 units of affordable $6,403,189, or 27%, has been received from the State as matching housing. Of this total, funds. Our CPA expenditures are funded by a voluntary surcharge on property taxes together with matching funds from the State. Lexington adopted the CPA with the full 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, as well as granting a total exemption from the surcharge to lower income residents. In 2010, the annual surcharge averaged $245 per Lexington household. Our commercial taxpayers contributed $639,153 last year, representing one-fifth of our CPA surcharge revenue. The State match, originally, 100%, has declined since 2006 as additional communities have adopted the statute and joined the funding pool, and as registry fees which feed the State fund have suffered in a weak economy. However, the match is currently estimated at 25%, still a healthy return on investment. Through its membership in the statewide non-profit Community Preservation Coalition, the CPC supportsAn Act to Sustain Community Preservation, which is now before the State legislature. The proposed law makes a number of improvements to the CPA, including expanding the definition of eligible projects and allowing communities to opt in to the statute by using existing municipal funding sources rather than imposing the property tax surcharge. Most importantly, the bill proposes to fix the State match of municipal funds at no less than 75% by adjusting real estate recording fees. The bill has the support of 114 legislators, a majority of both houses, and appears to have a good chance of passage this year. CPC Position on Article 17 Article 17 before the 2011 Town Meeting proposes reducing our voluntary surcharge from 3% to 1%, (as permitted in the statute), to ease the burden on Lexington’s taxpayers. Unlike normal property taxes, however, the CPA surcharge brings a substantial State subsidy that would otherwise be unavailable to Lexington. For a very small addition to our annual property taxes ($245 on average in 2010) taxpayers leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars in matching funds, $858,729 last year alone. Had Lexington opted for only a 1% surcharge in 2006, the loss to us in State funds over the past five years would have been more than $4.2 million dollars. In 2006, both of the Town’s finance committees opposed adoption of the CPA, in part because of concern that paying the surcharge would discourage voters from supporting necessary overrides or debt exclusions. This has not happened. Town Meeting has passed three overrides for school/municipal funding and a debt exclusion for construction of our public services building since the CPA was adopted. The finance committees give careful review to all projects proposed for CPA funding, and have supported all but a handful of the projects recommended by the CPC. Based on five years of experience with the CPA, both the Capital Expenditures Committee and the Appropriation Committee now oppose Article 17. 2