John Henshaw
Templeton Community Preservation Committee ChairmanTo The Editor:
At
the Templeton Annual Town Meeting on Saturday, voters will be asked to
consider several warrant articles seeking expenditure of Community
Preservation Act (CPA) funds.
Voters unfamiliar with the CPA
may wonder how we can have money available for these articles, yet have
no money to pay for core and essential services.
CPA funds are
outside of the general budget of the town and may be used only for
specific uses in four categories: Historic Preservation, Community
Housing, Open Space, and Recreation.
The funds are available to
Templeton as a result of Templeton voters accepting the provisions of
the Community Preservation Act in 2007. Among the projects Templeton
voters have approved over the years, are the conservation of the Dwelly
Farm, protection of land off Dudley Road, preservation efforts for the
Templeton Grange Hall and restoration of tombs in the Common Burial
Ground behind the First Church of Templeton.
While these projects
do not help our current municipal destitution, they do help preserve
our community heritage and can play a role in shoring up our civic pride
that has suffered so much recently via the assaults of community
discord and fiscal woes.
The CPA is a state law (M.G.L. Chapter
44B) that enables towns to assess a property tax surcharge and provides
matching funds from the Commonwealth to towns voting to accept its
provisions.
State law restricts expenditure of these funds to
the specific categories listed above. Since acceptance, every dollar
assessed by the town of Templeton for the CPA surcharge has been matched
by the Commonwealth — effectively doubling the size of the fund.
Residents eligible for tax abatement can see their CPA surcharge abated.
The first $100,000 in assessed value is exempt from the surcharge for
all residential property. The CPA surcharge is assessed as 3% of the
property tax (not property value) after the exemptions.
Annually, the town has assessed from $97,623 to $118,074 and received a total of $640,259 in matching funds.
The
matching funds are distributed in October by the Commonwealth from the
CPA Trust Fund that receives fees from registry of deed transactions. A
match of 100% is not guaranteed.
The state Department of
Revenue determines an annual base rate based on the availability of, and
demand for, funds. Towns that have voted for the 3% surcharge are
eligible for additional rounds of funding based on population and
wealth. As a result, Templeton (along with Phillipston and Royalston)
has been among the towns receiving a full match every year.
These
funds can then be appropriated at a town meeting, following a defined
process, and cannot be used for any non-CPA uses, such as town charges
or building a new school.
The CPA requires towns form a Community
Preservation Committee (CPC), comprised of local residents, to develop
and guide the process of getting funding requests on the town meeting
warrant. Proponents for a proposal work with the CPC to develop projects
that meet the statue requirements and provide sufficient information
regarding the cost and benefit of the project to the citizens of
Templeton.
The CPC discusses and reviews the proposed projects
and votes whether they should be submitted to the Board of Selectmen for
inclusion on the special or annual town meeting warrant. Once on the
warrant and moved at town meeting, the voters of Templeton decide
whether to expend the funds as proposed or not.
The 2014 Annual
Town Meeting warrant includes requests for funds to begin preservation
of town records ($17,500), preserve the East Templeton Elementary School
($195,000), continue preservation of the Templeton Grange Hall
($73,160), preserve a civil war monument at the Common Burial Ground
($31,000 and contingent upon receiving Veterans Agency grant of $7,500),
and partial funding in support of the replacement of the columns
supporting the portico at the First Church of Templeton ($5,000).
This
final request, if voted, would provide some of the funding for the
column repair and is allowed by the CPA, even though it is a church, as
the structure provides community benefit in its role defining the
Templeton Common.
The article seeking funds for the preservation
of the East Templeton Elementary School will likely feel the effects of
the polarized population.
Last year, a request was made for
$250,000 to preserve the school and to engage the services of a
preservation consultant to determine the scope and estimated cost of a
full restoration of the building for future use as a town office
building.
The proponents had originally sought only to stop the
degradation of the building by replacing the roof, boiler system and
making drainage improvements.
The CPC insisted that additional
funds be added to the request to engage the services of a consultant who
could inform the process of what would be required to complete the
re-use of the building.
Restoration would require addressing all
issues related to putting the building into full compliance for its
re-use — including strict adherence to the cost structure associated
with a state-funded project.
Voters rejected this approach and
the project proponents re-visited the matter this year when it was
decided to seek only the funds necessary to stabilize the building and
protect the asset.
This article would provide the funds to
achieve this result and would enable the town to consider its options to
move forward in the ultimate use or disposition of the building.
Here’s to hoping we can channel some of the passion we have for our town to the common good.
John Henshaw
Templeton Community Preservation Committee Chairman |
I would like to thank Mr. Henshaw for a well written article explaining the CPA. At first glance the CPA appears to take taxable town land off the tax roll placing more of a tax burden on those left paying taxes however using this source of funding to maintain valuable town resources seems to be an excellent use of these funds. With such things as Agenda 21 eating away at personal property rights it is refreshing seeing this money used for the East Templeton School project and other much needed uses here in town. East Templeton has become a real gem in our community and having the East Templeton School in working order for what ever might end up there seems to me to be an excellent use of CPA monies. It is hoped all will support bringing this beautiful landmark building up to snuff at Saturdays Annual Town Meeting.
ReplyDeleteThe taxpayers in this town have spent too much money renting a place for what should be called a "Town Hall." It is the time to put our money in the Community Preservation fund to a good use. The building that was for many years the East Templeton School, will be a good place for our town workers to set up shop. Forget the horror stories simply because they are not true. This building has a lot of life in it, with a little tender love and care. East Templeton can be proud that it will have the Town Office Building in their precinct. More offices in one place will make it easier for people to do business, and after two hundred and fifty years, we will have a town office building that looks like it belongs in New England, because it does. Bev.
ReplyDeleteThank you John for the explanation and advise you have given throughout the process of us looking to save the ET school.
ReplyDeleteI fear this will be the last time we spend the time to convince our voters to do this and save money. I started helping as soon as i heard the effort was being made by Mr Springs and others. We spent time looking over the building from bottom to top. Patched the roof 2 times with a tarp and have been able to keep the building from falling into the list of unuseable Templeton buildings. The fact that you put this in the news paper tells me if the people want to know the how and whats they only have to read it. There is no good reason not to fix whats needed and use this building. Many will help with the effort including myself. As i have in the past on my own time and as a highway worker . Templeton voters only need to pitch in with a yes vote and the rest will follow. I think the highway dept. can and will do what they need to or are told,to get things done there. With so many attempts to get the funding without educating the public about the CPA funds we only hope they will read and understand this issue fully!
Again thank you John and the CPC people who help with the fund distribution process.
Hi David, Thank you for your kind reply to a post I wrote about seeing (what looks like rather benign, non inflammatory) comments being removed way too often for my liking. My post addressing this was unfortunately deleted, as well. And many wonder why some good people in town have had it when they feel they are being censored for no discernible reason other than someone disagrees with their view. Even though I don't personally know you, I happen to agree with much of what you write. Not sure who is doing the administrating here but it is concerning and I won't be commenting after this. It will likely be deleted anyway. Have a good day and thank you for your kind words prior to this and appreciate your efforts to straighten this town out. Have a good evening.
ReplyDeleteIsteach i thank you or all your posts and insight.They are valuable here and i hope you keep comments in the future. As with everything it takes time to sort out the kinks and the blog has some for sure to sort out. As far as the comments removed i don't know why they were and i will soon find out who did the removal of them. I will have it stop ASAP.
ReplyDeleteYou Identity is known and are always thoughtful and valued here. I would like to have the peoson who deleted your comments e mail me and plaese explain why. Anyone who has the ability to do so has had contact with me and i would like to be contacted via my email. Only 4 others have the codes needed to do this.
Please allow me time to get to the bottom of this isteach.
smart@nii.net
Thank you so much, David. You have made me feel better about all of this and that there may be a more simple explanation such as a techno glitch and not just plain abhorrent, across the board, outright blatant censorship. Again, appreciate all you have done.
DeleteThe oversight belongs to a small group. We are the ones who see unidentified comments and remove them when we don't know who posted them. Some id control of who posted needs to be in place to make things fair and honest. Anyone who gives an ID will not be removed. If id is verified they will be allowed. For it to be any other way will be a slap in the face of the viewers being insulted by those hidden behind a false name or id. There will be a change to the Blog soon that will enable us to keep only the people id comments and not have others allowed to comments.Please be patient with the changes,it's for the better and safe for us all in the long run.
ReplyDelete