Good News From Stoughton Community Preservation Committee

(FROM THE STOUGHTON COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE)

The Stoughton Community Preservation Committee was notified late last month that the town will receive a higher than normal contribution this year from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. 

The additional revenue is coming from $25 million that has been deposited into the CPA trust fund from the state’s fiscal year 2013 budget surplus.

What that means for Stoughton is that it will have an additional $151,000 on top of the $127,000 that it had budgeted for this fiscal year.

“We’re extremely happy” community preservation committee chairman John Morton said earlier this week. “It is a nice windfall, but with no guarantee that it will ever happen again.”

This year’s state match will represent roughly 52-percent of the revenue Stoughton collects locally, which is a much higher figure than the 26-percent match it had been expecting. Local revenues were also higher than expected.

Stoughton receives funds to be spent on CPA-related projects in two ways.  At the local level, Stoughton charges a 1.5-percent surcharge on property tax bills (excluding the first $100,000 of assessed value). The town also receives a distribution from the state trust fund, which is raised from transaction fees at the Registries of Deeds throughout the Commonwealth.

Stoughton uses the money to fund projects that fit into any of the four CPA categories: open space, community housing, historic preservation and recreation. By law communities that have adopted the CPA are required to allocate at least 10-percent of their CPA revenue to each of the open space, historic preservation and community housing  categories..

One of the reasons the state match was increased was a change in the CPA law last year. That amendment allows funds to be spent on the rehabilitation of existing recreational land, parks or fields.  Prior to the change, CPA funds could only be used on recreational projects if they created new land, parks or fields.

The Community Preservation Act is statewide enabling legislation, which was adopted by Stoughton and approved by Town Meeting and by a vote of the residents in November 2008.

To find out more about the Stoughton Community Preservation Committee and current initiatives, visit the Community Preservation Committee page on the town’s website @ www.stoughton.org