Q: What can money from Question 5 be used for?
A: State law restricts money raised under the Community Preservation Act to the following purposes:
- Restoring and preserving historic buildings such as Town Hall, the Senior Center, libraries, schools, and historic sites, structures and artifacts, including historic documents;
- Creating or refurbishing ball fields, playgrounds, and walking trails;
- Preserving land for conservation, recreation, wildlife habitat, and flood control;
- Creating or rehabilitating more affordable housing for local residents, including supportive housing for seniors.
Q: Does that mean the town must spend 30% of the funds each year?
The town can bank these expenditures for later years. For example, if a significant historic preservation project were envisioned, a portion of the Historic Preservation allocation could be accumulated for that purpose.
Similarly, a major open space acquisition could be funded over a period of years, with each year’s set-aside satisfying the minimum requirement. In effect, the requirement for 10% to be allocated to each purpose area is over the long run.
Q: Who decides how the money gets used?
A: The law requires Town Meeting to create a local Community Preservation Committee. This board is charged with making recommendations on Community Preservation Act projects to Town Meeting each year.
The committee must include a representative from each of the Housing Authority, Historic Commission, Conservation Commission, Redevelopment Board, and Parks & Recreation Commission, with as many as four other positions determined by the community.
Arlington can, for example, include representatives of the Finance Committee and Capital Planning Committee.
Each year, Town Meeting reviews committee recommendations, and has the authority to reject, approve, or reduce funding proposals for recommended projects. No CPA projects can be funded without a favorable vote of Town Meeting.
Q: How does the surcharge work?
It is not a 1.5% tax (which would more than double the tax rate!). It is a surcharge of 1.5% on the real estate tax, after the following exemptions:
- The first $100,000 of assessed property value is exempted for all property owners—residential as well as commercial and industrial. So a property assessed at $400,000 would be surcharged as if it were assessed at $300,000; a $700,000 property as $600,000.
- Low-income homeowners and low and medium-income senior homeowners are entirely exempt from the surcharge.
Q: Do I qualify for an exemption?
A: Everyone qualifies for the exemption of the first $100,000 of assessed value. For low-income homeowners and low- to moderate-income senior homeowners, the income limits for full exemption are currently as follows:
| Household size | Senior (60+) maximum income | Low-income maximum income |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $65,870 | $52,696 |
| 2 | $75,280 | $60,224 |
| 4 | $94,100 | $75,280 |
These exemptions are based on annual median incomes and are subject to change over time. For more information, please review the 2014 Community Preservation Act Affordable Housing Income Limits table.
In general if you are exempt from property taxes, you are exempt from the surcharge.
Q: By how much will my property taxes increase?
A: For the average Arlington homeowner, a 1.5% surcharge means less than $86 a year:
| Assessed Value | Approx Annual Surcharge |
|---|---|
| $400,000 | $62 |
| $500,000 | $83 |
| $600,000 | $103 |
Q: How much money will this raise?
A: About $1.1 million a year. This does not include any distribution that Arlington would receive each year as its share of the state Community Preservation Act Trust Fund.
Q: How much will the state match?
A: The state Trust Fund is funded by charges imposed at the Registries of Deeds on every recorded real estate transaction. Since those include those in Arlington, we’ve been subsidizing the communities that have already adopted Community Preservation Act plans of their own!
There is no guarantee of the amount of the state match, which is dependent on both the amounts collected in fees, and on the number of communities participating.
The past two years the Legislature has augmented the Trust Fund with additional support, reflecting the success of the program and the number of constituent cities and towns participating.
Historically, the state match has varied from 100% in the early days of the program, to a low of about 27% in 2011. Last year’s contribution was about 52%.
So at the all-time low, Arlington’s match by the state would have been around $300,000. At last year’s rate, it would have been about $570,000.
Q: Can we change the plan once we adopt it?
A: Yes. Once adopted, a Community Preservation Act proposal must be in force for five years. After that time, the surcharge percentage and exemptions can be amended through the same ballot-question process.
The Act can also be revoked, although no community in the state has ever opted to do so. In fact, several have voted to increase their CPA contribution after a few years of experience with its benefits.
Q: Doesn’t our existing capital budget cover these investments?
A: Arlington’s capital budget already provides some funding for playgrounds and fields and renewal of historic buildings such as Town Hall and the Senior Center, limited by the competing demands of public health and safety, schools and public works.
The capital budget provides little funding for preservation of other historical assets and no funding for protection of open space, or for affordable housing. Question 5 can provide a steady source of funding for these community investments.
Q: Can Question 5 help relieve our other budgets?
The Selectmen have proposed that Question 5 and our capital-planning process work together. Some items in the existing Capital Plan are Community Preservation Act–eligible, and the Selectmen have recommended that such projects be considered for funding by Question 5.
Doing so would take advantage of the state match: any project shifted to CPA would be paid partly by the state funds. This would provide a savings to the capital budget, and the Selectmen recommend that any savings be transferred directly to the Override Stabilization Fund. That in turn would delay or reduce the need for a future tax increase.
All recommendations for CPA projects, including any proposed to be shifted from the existing capital plan, will be reviewed by the newly created Community Preservation Committee. In the end Town Meeting has the final word on all expenditures from CPA just as it does on all other Town funds.
Q: Why now?
A: In 2012 the Community Preservation Act was made more favorable to mature and largely built-out communities like Arlington. Previously, the funds could only be used to acquire new open space. The amendments allow for the funds to be used to improve existing parks, open space and athletics fields.
Also, protection of our few sensitive remaining open spaces (the Mugar parcel in East Arlington for example) has long been a community goal.
The Community Preservation Act is a potential resource for that purpose, but the changes in the Act also give us the flexibility to address active recreational needs in our parks and playgrounds.
