Making The Community Preservation Act Case In Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Eighteen years after a push to participate in the state's Community Preservation Act program failed a townwide vote after winning town meeting support, residents will again be asked to support joining the program that makes state matching funds available for open space, historic preservation and affordable housing projects in exchange for an annual property tax surcharge.

Select Board member Doug Thompson last week chaired a public forum on the CPA question that will come before town meeting next month and a townwide vote in November should it pass town meeting.

According to Thompson, if the town elects a 1 percent surcharge that will translate to an increase of $74 annually for a median household property assessed at $750,000. It would be $110 a year if the town elects a 1.5 percent surcharge — which Thompson said are the two most common percentages chosen among the 195 cities and towns across the state that have adopted the CPA.

He said adopting the 1 percent surcharge would translate to about $500,000 in funds with a 1.5 percent surcharge generating about $740,000. He said recent state matching reimbursements have ranged between 20 and 40 percent over the past 10 years.

Voters last considered joining the CPA in 2006.

"It passed town meeting, I think, relatively easily and that was its Achilles heel," Thompson said. "Because the people who brought it forward felt like, 'Hey, that was pretty easy. We don't have to do really anything. It will come up on the ballot. It passed town meeting. So it will just happen.

"Well, it didn't just happen. Because people didn't know. Basically, when you walk in there (the voting booth) the real challenge, frankly, is that all of the stuff we're talking about, we can have this conversation, and all get educated. We won't necessarily walk out of here 'Rah, rah, rah!' But we will have the full picture.

"Unfortunately, many people will walk into the voting booth in November and all they'll see is: 'Do you, basically, agree to add a surcharge on your taxes of 1 percent?' They're not going to have the whole story to understand what it's all about. That's really the challenge."

The forum was part of what Thompson called "the campaign" to convince residents of the benefits of being in the program where the town has access to the state matching funds that it contributes to whether it is a member of the CPA or not.

He said some of the potential projects that could benefit from the voting were saving the Glover House, creating affordable housing at Vinnin Square, fixing the pier or the fish house, as well as renovating Phillips Park, Town Hall Lawn or the Rail Trail.

"All of these things are generally eligible uses for these types of funds," he said. "Things that are not willy-nilly, things that are crazy. But things that are actively being talked about that likely over the next five to 10 years this community is going to have to think about whether or not we are going to take a pass on doing these things or somehow figure out how to pay for them."

He said the town could choose to exempt the first $100,000 of assessed home value, which many other communities do, and has the open to exempt homeowners under 60 years old earning less than $80,000 and those over 60 years old earning less than $100,000.

The full 90-minute public forum can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)