The Community Preservation Act in Rehoboth

The Community Preservation Act (CPA) is a state law that enables cities and towns to create a dedicated fund for local open space, historic preservation, community housing and recreation projects.

How it works:

• The CPA enacts a surcharge of 1% on property tax bills. The money raised locally is matched by the state to create a local Community Preservation Fund. Ten percent (10%) of this fund must be dedicated to each of the three core areas (open space, affordable housing, and historic preservation) each year. The remaining seventy percent (70%) can be spent or reserved for future spending in any of the three areas as well as an additional area, public recreation. In Rehoboth, the surcharge would be 1%, with low-income families and senior low and moderate income households exempt from contributing.

• A local Community Preservation Committee makes recommendations for spending the funds, and each project must be approved by the Town Meeting.

• The CPA must be voted on at a regularly scheduled election. To be placed on the ballot in an election, the CPA must be approved by a majority at Town Meeting or a by a petition signed by 5% of registered voters.  

• The source of the state matching funds is through fees at the Registry of Deeds, which are not subject to legislative allocation or approval, making the matching funds a reliable source of funds. The state provided a 100% match to every community adopted the CPA in its first six years, but – as more communities have adopted the CPA - the match dropped to just over 65% for fiscal year 2008.

• Once adopted, the CPA is in place for five years. The property tax surcharge can be raised or lowered at any time through the same process of adopting the CPA (town meeting vote or petition and then followed by a ballot vote).

• Currently, 140 cities and towns have adopted the CPA, from Cambridge to West Springfield to Aquinnah, Westport and Swansea.

• CPA funds are very flexible and can be used to permanently protect farmland, build ball fields and walking paths, restore historic buildings and bring them to code, create housing plans and much more.