A DOR spreadsheet showing distribution amounts for each community is attached and is also available in the “Document vault” section of the Clipper Web site.

Last month, CPA supporters from across the Commonwealth testified in favor of Senate Bill 90 in front of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business. One of the bill’s primary features is an amendment raising the minimum trust fund match rate to 75 percent of what each community raises locally through their CPA surcharge. In the CPA legislation as currently written, that match can go as low as five percent.

“CPA is one of the most popular and effective smart growth programs ever, so it’s important that Senate Bill 90 pass quickly to keep the program viable,” said Stuart Saginor, Executive Director of the Community Preservation Coalition, a non-profit organization that provides technical assistance to communities adopting or implementing CPA. “Forty percent of the Commonwealth’s communities are using CPA to directly improve citizens’ quality of life, and to fund projects that are helping boost economic activity, right when we need it most.”

Senate Bill 90’s lead sponsors are Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem (D-Newton) and Rep. Stephen Kulik (D-Worthington). An unprecedented 81 additional legislators co-sponsored the bill, giving it a broad base of support. More than 75 housing, environmental, recreation and historic preservation organizations from across the state also support the bill.

The bill would stabilize the trust fund by increasing the fee on real estate recording instruments filed at the county registries; the share of the fee dedicated to the CPA trust fund has not risen in the eight years CPA has been enacted. If increased, the CPA recording fee for the basic documents filed on a real estate transaction will represent just .045 percent of the cost of the median price home sale of $305,000.

“That is less than five hundredths of one percent of the cost for the typical real estate transaction in Massachusetts,” said Saginor. “That’s an extremely small amount to stabilize the trust fund and ensure the continued success of CPA for the Commonwealth.”

CPA is a state law passed in 2000 that allows adopting communities to establish a dedicated local fund to support affordable housing, develop new parks, playgrounds and recreational fields, protect open space, and preserve historic resources. Funds are raised locally through a surcharge of up to three percent on real property taxes, with certain allowed exemptions, and participating communities receive an annual distribution from the Community Preservation Trust Fund. Thus far, 142 cities and towns in the Commonwealth – 40 percent of the state’s communities – have adopted CPA.

Using funds raised through the CPA program, municipalities have preserved 11,377 acres of open space, including important wetland resources such as lakes, rivers, and saltwater ponds. In the area of affordable housing, CPA funds have allowed for the creation or rehabilitation of more than 3,100 affordable housing units and the development of hundreds of innovative local affordable housing programs. Finally, at least 1,600 appropriations have been approved for local historic preservation projects and 550 for recreation projects since the program began. For more information about the CPA and the Community Preservation Coalition, visit www.communitypreservation.org

The material is taken from a press release sent out by the Community Preservation Coalition.