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Significantly Higher CPA Trust Fund Distribution Announced

Posted on: April 30, 2018 - 5:06pm

Nov. 15, 2013: The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) has released the Community Preservation Trust Fund distribution for each CPA municipality. In accordance with Section 10 of the CPA legislation, DOR annually distributes monies from the fund to cities and towns that have adopted CPA. This year's trust fund distribution comes one month later than the normal date, which allowed the state sufficient time to deposit $25 million in additional funds from the state's budget surplus. These funds were then combined with the recording fees collected through the state's Registries of Deeds to form the full distribution amount. Close to $55 million was distributed to the 148 communities eligible for a match this year.

All CPA communities will receive a 52.23% match on round one of the trust fund distribution this year, which represents a two-fold increase from last year's 26.64% round one match. Communities that adopted CPA with a full 3% local property tax surcharge will receive additional revenue on rounds two and three.

Click here for DOR's spreadsheet showing CPA Trust Fund distribution amounts for each city and town

This year's match is the highest since 2008 due to a combination of three factors:

  1. $25 million from the state's FY13 budget surplus was added to the CPA Trust Fund last week, as a result of the passage of "An Act to Sustain Community Preservation" in July of 2012.
  2. Collections for the trust fund from recording fees at the state's Registries of Deeds have rebounded strongly this year due to the improvement in the real estate market.
  3. The shift in the distribution date from October to November allowed DOR to include one additonal month of revenue from the Registries of Deeds recording fees. Past distributions have included 12 months of registry recording fees, but for this year only, DOR included 13 months in the distribtuion.

To determine the exact distribution each community receives, DOR follows a formula in the CPA legislation that calls for up to three rounds of trust fund distributions. Click here to learn more about how the statewide trust fund distribution works.

Statistics From This Year's Distribution: 

  • Total municipalities receiving a trust fund distribution on 11-15-13: 148 
  • Match percentage received by municipalities with a CPA local property tax surcharge of less than 3%: 52.23% 
  • Match percentage received by municipalities with the maximum CPA local property tax surcharge of 3%: Range of 53.04% to 100% 
  • Number of municipalities receiving a full 100% match: 23
  • Average percentage match statewide: 65.42%
  • Total payout in first round distribution: $48,318,485
  • Total payout in second round distribution: $4,438,470 
  • Total payout in third round distribution: $2,137,048
  • Total payout for all rounds: $54,894,003

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