NORTHFIELD — Town residents rejected an increase to a property tax surcharge for Community Preservation Act projects, in a vote of 847 to 553 this week.
The proposal to increase the surcharge from 0.5 percent of the property tax to 1 percent was the only Northfield-specific question on Tuesday’s midterm ballot.
“Certainly we are disappointed,” said Lara Dubin, who chairs the Community Preservation Committee. “But we’ll keep moving forward and we’ll keep trying to educate people about all the good the CPA is doing and why this percentage of money is useful.”
In 2017, the .5 percent surcharge brought in $21,660, with state matching providing an extra $4,581. The state typically matches about 20 percent of the town’s funding, Dubin said.
The surcharge is calculated from the property tax, minus a $100,000 exemption from the property value. For example, if a house has an assessed value of $225,000, the tax rate of 1.786 percent applies to $125,000 (the assessed value minus the $100,000 exemption), then the CPA surcharge rate of 0.5 percent is applied for a charge of $11.16. The increase would have doubled the surcharge.
Despite the proposal’s failure, Dubin felt that the committee’s recent efforts to educate residents on the CPA — which included hosting public forums in October and highlighting past Community Preservation Act projects with lawn signs — were somewhat successful. She guessed that more people voted in favor of the increase than who otherwise might have.
Since 2009, Northfield has raised a total of $249,605 through the CPA surcharge, and received $139,182 in partial matching from the state. With that money the committee has granted $271,000 for preservation projects in town.
The surcharge was 3 percent of property taxes in 2008 when Northfield adopted the Community Preservation Act. In 2009 it was voted down to 0.5 percent, where it has been ever since.
This was the first time that the committee had proposed an increase to the surcharge. Committee members had hoped that, with interest in CPA projects seemingly on the rise in town, the increase would be palatable for residents; but they also acknowledged that for many, it’s just another tax.
Dubin said that in the long term, the committee won’t give up seeking more money from the town, but that it is too soon to know if the committee will try again in 2019 or will wait a few years. Before a vote can happen, Town Meeting must decide to put the question on the ballot.