There will be less state money available for historical preservation, open space, and affordable housing in Harvard in the coming budget year.
Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue announced that Harvard would receive $61,667 for use on qualifying community preservation projects, a nearly 40 percent drop from the $99,463 received in 2013. The state money is added to the amount collected by the town each year through its 1.1 percent surcharge on property taxes and used to replenish Harvard’s fund for community preservation, which is overseen by the nine-member Community Preservation Committee (CPC).
“It is what it is,” CPC Chairman Didi Chadran said this week. The annual match is “not predictable” and “we have very little influence over what happens at the state level,” he said.
Still, Chadran said, he had “come to appreciate” the value of Harvard’s participation in the state’s program. “It’s a wonderful way to fund certain community preservation goals, even if it’s done within a fairly tight framework,” he said.
$3.2 million for community goals
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In the 14 years since Harvard created its fund, the town has collected more than $2 million through its tax surcharge and another $1.2 million in state matching money (see chart). Harvard accounting officer Fred Aponte told the Press that with the addition of this year’s match, the fund’s “unreserved” balance stands at $356,891, with another $29,311 set aside for future community housing projects.
The community preservation law requires that each year the committee spend or set aside 10 percent of its revenues for open space projects, 10 percent for “historic resources,” and 10 percent for “community housing.” This year, Harvard’s CPC received four requests for the upcoming budget year:
- A $50,000 request from the land stewardship subcommittee of the Conservation Commission to control invasive species on three “major pieces” of conservation land;
- A $75,000 ask from Parks and Recreation Commission to construct a Harvard Park cross-country trail;
- A request for $200,000 by the affordable housing trust to pay carrying and development costs for the land at the former Poor Farm on Littleton Road and a conceptual plan for senior housing on the Hildreth House property; and
- $250,000 to replenish the Conservation Commission’s Conservation Fund, which is no longer funded by the town’s annual budget.
The state’s community preservation program was created in 2000 when then-Governor Paul Cellucci signed into law the Community Preservation Act, which allows towns to create a local Community Preservation Fund for projects that protect open space, preserve “historic resources,” improve community housing, and promote outdoor recreation. While a town’s property taxes are traditionally used to pay for its schools and town services, the CPA legislation provides a “steady funding source for preserving and improving a community’s character and quality of life,” in the words of the Community Preservation Coalition, the advocacy group instrumental to the act’s adoption.
Harvard became a CPA community in April 2001 by a vote of 1,116 for and 429 against at Town Election. The bylaw set the town’s tax surcharge at 1.1 percent with no exemptions, the minimum permitted by state law. An attempt was made in 2002 to raise the surcharge to 3 percent—exempting low-income residents and the first $100,000 in assessed property value from the tax—but the measure was defeated by a 52 to 48 percent margin.
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The amount of state matching money a town receives each year is determined by several factors. The higher its surcharge, the more money a town receives. The revenue raised by towns with a 1.1 percent CPA surcharge was matched this year by a 31.5 percent distribution from the state. The average match for the 158 participating cities and towns was 42.7 percent, according to the revenue department. Community wealth is also a factor, with poorer communities receiving more. This year 10 communities received a full 100 percent match. See the chart at the right for a comparison of Harvard’s match with that of neighboring towns.
The traditional source of state matching dollars is a recording fee collected on transactions at the state’s Registries of Deeds. That source has declined sharply and fluctuated since the onset of the financial crisis of 2008. To make up the difference, the state added $11.4 million from its fiscal 2014 surplus to the mix this year. But that is short of the $25 million that community preservation advocates had hoped for.
Searching for stabler source
In a Nov. 7 press release, the Community Preservation Coalition said a more stable source of funding for the state’s CPA trust fund was needed. “The Coalition’s top priority is to work with the Legislature and Governor-elect Baker to identify a possible funding source for a more permanent solution,” it said. But with the state projecting a deficit for the coming fiscal year, finding such a source will be a challenge.
