DOR Issues Updated FY2010 CPA Trust Fund Match Projection

and Revised Community Preservation Decile Rankings

March 20, 2009

Today, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) issued an updated projection of the match communities can expect to receive from the statewide CPA Trust Fund this coming October. In addition, DOR issued their biennial revision of the Community Preservation Decile rankings. These rankings are used to determine the Round 2 and 3 Trust Fund distributions for communities that adopted CPA at the full 3% local surcharge level.

Updated FY2010 Trust Fund Projection

DOR is now advising communities preparing their 2010 CPA annual budgets to use a 29% figure when estimating their October 15, 2009 round one payment from the statewide CPA Trust Fund. This projection was included in the revised Community Preservation Decile rankings posted on DOR’s website, the text of which reads:

Please note that the decline in state matching funds is the result of both the increasing participation in the CPA program at the local level and the substantial decline in registry surcharges that provide the funding source for the state matching funds. Using recent trends, if we assume that FY09 local CPA collections rise to $79.9 million and that state registry collections decrease by $5.3 million to equal approximately $21.7 million, the first round match projects to be about 29 percent on October 15, 2009.

CPA communities should follow DOR's guidance when preparing their 2010 CPA budgets, as this conservative approach is designed to leave municipalities with a "margin for error" in these budgets. That being said, the Coalition does see some potential for the round one payment to be slightly higher than the 29% figure. We will continue watching the Trust Fund revenue collections over the coming months to see if an upward trend emerges.

Revised Community Preservation Decile Rankings

Section 10 of the CPA statute (MGL Chapter 44B) describes the Trust Fund distribution method, which includes up to three rounds of funding. Every two years, DOR updates the rankings used to determine the payouts for rounds two and three. This only affects the 74 CPA communities that have adopted the maximum 3% local surcharge, as those communities are the only ones eligible to receive additional funding in rounds two and three.

The revised rankings contained no change for the majority of those 74 communities. However, the rankings did change for 16 communities: 5 communities received a higher rank, which means they will receive slightly more funding in the later round(s) this coming October, while 11 communities moved down one notch. The DOR spreadsheet below shows the rankings for each community in the state. We have added a column to DOR's spreadsheet to show any change to the rank of CPA 3% communities.

Click here to download DOR’s spreadsheet of Community Preservation Decile Rankings.

Click here for an explanation of the formula used to distribute CPA trust fund payments.