Choice not Chance

Communities
Should be Shaped by
Choice not Chance

What is the Problem?

Sprawl - unmanaged growth - lost or degraded open space. That is the future landscape of our communities - sprawl, strip malls, deteriorating downtowns, expensive large tract housing, development expanding into every open space?

This is a critical time for our cities and towns. Take a good look at your community. Has traffic increased dramatically? Is your favorite park or beachfront paved over or polluted? Has your downtown area deteriorated? Are you losing long-time residents because housing prices and property taxes are too high?

Since 1950, development has outpaced population growth in Massachusetts. While the population has grown 28%, the amount of land developed has grown 188%.

What Do We Need?

Planning
In an increasingly look-alike world, we in Massachusetts need to make our own decisions and plan the future of our communities, balancing affordability, economic development, and the preservation of the built and natural environments.

Funding
People have vision; but we don’t always have the funds to transform vision into reality. Though there are many state and federal grant programs, most are underfunded and oversubscribed. Each community’s request competes with every other for very limited funds, and decisions to award these matching grants are made by people outside the community.

What Can You Do?

Support the Community Preservation Act

This Act would provide a new source of funds for your city or town to use to: Ongoing capital expenses like these often go unfunded because local property taxes are already overloaded with ever-increasing expenses for schools, police, roads, safety, sanitation, and more.

What is the Community Preservation Act?

If passed by the legislature, this local option Act would allow cities and towns to adopt, by a ballot vote, a transfer tax of up to 1% on real estate purchases. The first $100,000 of each purchase could be exempt from the tax to help first time home buyers and those of modest means. The money collected would go into a special Community Preservation Fund and used in accordance with locally approved plans. This Act has flexible provisions that can be tailored to the special needs of each community that votes to adopt it.

How is the money allocated?

The Act would allow your community to allocate the funds, in accordance with your own plans, to manage growth and achieve long-term goals. You could acquire open space, preserve historic resources, provide housing opportunities, remediate polluted sites, or improve septic systems. The only requirement is that 10% of the annual revenues must be set aside for each of the first three uses.

Who decides how the funds are spent?

The community would set up its own local Community Preservation Committee to hold public hearings and prepare a plan for use of the funds. The plan must be approved by the town meeting or city council. This allows communities flexibility to set their own unique priorities. They can deal with persistent problems as well as plan ahead for sensible development.

Is this a new initiative?

No. Since the mid 1980s, over 70 Massachusetts communities have considered or requested this authority, but none of these home rule petitions,with the exception of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, has been passed by the legislature. Since 1985, the islands have used their transfer tax authority to save 3,000 acres of open space. Vermont and many other states use transfer taxes to fund similar successful programs.

As The Boston Globe pointed out, "This is the most gentle of levies, imposed on most people only a few times in their lives and intended to preserve the environment, which enhances property values in the first place. More than a tax, it is an investment in livability."
Act Now

Bring people together
The future of your community is up to you. Get together with your neighbors, talk about the opportunities and the challenges, and make your choices. Do not leave your community’s future to chance and the actions of others.