CPA Trust Fund change not in State Budget

Post date: Jul 13, 2017 6:33:18 PM

Hello Jason,

When the FY18 state budget was released from the Conference Committee on Friday, we had hoped that a permanent increase to the CPA Trust Fund would be included. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Despite being a part of the Senate's version of the budget last month, the language to increase funding for the CPA Trust Fund will not be included in the final version of the state budget.

CPA was far from the only disappointment - many other state programs were victim to $400 million worth of cuts after the conference committee effectively rewrote the FY18 state budget. Lamenting the cutbacks, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg was quoted in a recent State House News article that the budget "would have been somewhat better had it contained the Senate's modest revenue proposals including... the Community Preservation Act."

Although the CPA Trust Fund revenue does not directly intersect with the annual budget, the widespread reductions across the entire document placed the committee in a difficult situation. Ultimately, we think the committee could not justify providing new funding to CPA when it was cutting support to so many other state programs. "This budget is not without pain," Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka told reporters. "It's clear that the state is facing a shortfall in revenue that will have an impact on real people's lives and there are cuts throughout this budget."

Language was included in the final version that would provide $10 million in state budget surplus funding to the CPA Trust Fund. However, much like last year, we don't anticipate that there will be surplus funding available when the state closes its books on October 31st. Without surplus funding, the Department of Revenue estimates that the state match for eligible CPA communities will be approximately 15%.

The disappointing outcome certainly wasn't due to a lack of effort. Over the last few months, the Coalition has held dozens of formal meetings on Beacon Hill, talked with aides in virtually every other legislator's office, written letters to conference committee members, collaborated with partners on emails to advocates across the state, organized a letter of support from mayors of the largest CPA cities and towns, worked with the real estate industry to fine-tune language on implementation, and met with top administrative officials like Jay Ash, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, and Matthew Beaton, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Most importantly, for the first time ever, a branch of the legislature is on record as supporting the increase in the deeds recording fees to increase the CPA Trust Fund distribution. The Senate passed the increase as part of their version of the state budget back in May.

All of this positions us well for the future. The original CPA Trust Fund bill, H.3662, is very much alive and has been recommended out of the Joint Committee on Revenue. Despite the setback in the budget, the Coalition will immediately begin working on pushing this bill forward. We thank each and every advocate for helping us in these efforts, and as always, we will keep you up to date on any new developments.