Swampscott To Vote On Community Preservation Act In November

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott voters will have their say in November on whether the town will join the state Community Preservation Act program after town meeting members overwhelmingly supported sending the proposal to the townwide ballot.

The proposal would add a 1.5 percent surcharge to the property tax bills of residents and businesses with that money combined with state matching funds eligible to be spent on open space, historic preservation and affordable housing projects.

Select Board members Doug Thompson hosted two public hearings on the CPA prior to his presentation at last week's annual town meeting. He said 190 of the state's 351 cities and towns have adopted becoming part of the program launched two decades ago.

Under the Swampscott proposal of a 1.5 percent surcharge — out of a maximum of 3 percent — he said the median single-family home's annual tax bill will rise about $100. There are age and income exemptions that would exempt single residents under 60 years old in a home with a yearly income of less than $89,000 — $119,000 for a family of four — and single residents over 60 years old with in a home with a yearly income of less than $104,000.

The first $100,000 of a property's assessed value would also be exempt.

He said the state matching funds have ranged between 20 and 40 percent in recent years.

"This is a great, smart investment to add to our toolbox of the ways that we are financially managing the town," Thompson said. "This is widely used across Massachusetts. Seventy percent of all residents live in a town that benefits from CPA. I would hasten to add that just about everyone who has done a transaction of some real estate in this town over the last 20 years has contributed funds to projects all over the Commonwealth and not one dime of it has actually been spent right here in Swampscott through this program.

"I think it's time to bring our money back home."

If the CPA passes the November vote, a town meeting warrant article next year would be brought forth to establish a Community Preservation Committee that would steer the decision making for using the funds.

Thompson said the CPA tax would raise about $730,000 in funds each year that could go toward town projects ranging from housing, to the historical properties like the Glover House, to resiliency and open space projects like sea walls, the pier or potentially the Fish House.

"These are projects that are extremely likely to come before this body in the coming years," Thompson said, "primarily through capital projects, maybe through the operating budget, that will require disbursement of funds. What this CPA allows is for us to get state support for these investments.

"As it stands right now we will foot the bill for all of this ourselves."

Thompson said that Nahant — an early CPA adopter — has generated more than $3.7 million in tax funding with an additional $2.8 in state matching funding that has gone toward the completion of more than 100 projects in that town.