Shaw recommends considering end of CPA to fund School Renovation
By Shawn on Jan 15, 2011 in Community, Schools
On this morning’s Saturday Morning Live program, host Warren Shaw recommended that the town look at the ending of the 2% Community Preservation surtax as a way to reduce the impact of the new tax override to pay for the school override.
There is currently about $6 million sitting in the CPA fund that can be put aside for future projects. No other land owners in town seem interested in joining the program anymore, so the CPA seems to have gone beyond its usefulness (my opinion) and now is just becoming a fund to be targeted by every one in town with a new project.
I’m not sure what the mechanism would be to be sure the current projects are paid off. Perhaps a small percentage of the current 2% addon to the property tax would remain. Let the bean-counters figure that part out (the money sitting in the fund could possibly pay down some of that debt as well).
In a discussion with Dr McNamara, the renovation project was described, and the funding from the state discussed.
I’ve attached an audio clip, of the discussion.
The next meeting of the Renovation Subcommittee is Thursday the 20th of Jan, 6:00 p.m. at the Junior High School Community Room.
Dr Mike McNamara joins us to discuss HS Renovation [ 34:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7)
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Jeanne Balkas | Jan 17, 2011 | Reply
I thought that until the debt is paid off on all the CPA projects, we cannot opt out?
Maybe what we can do is lower the surcharge percentage.
Shawn | Jan 17, 2011 | Reply
Yeah, thats what I think we would have to do, but I’m not sure. There must be some provision in the law to reduce the surcharge down so that you can stop participation, but still be able to tax at a much lower rate (with out the 10-10-80 allocation requirement) to cover current debt.
Karen | Jan 18, 2011 | Reply
And if we stay in at a reduced amount we still receive some matching funds which means the state helps to pay off the debt.