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DOR Announces October 15th, 2012 CPA Trust Fund Distribution

Posted on: April 30, 2018 - 2:59pm

Oct. 12, 2012: Today the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) released the Community Preservation Trust Fund distribution for each CPA municipality. In accordance with Massachusetts General Law (MGL) Chapter 44B, Section 10, DOR annually distributes monies from the fund in mid-October to cities and towns that have adopted CPA. All CPA communities will receive a 26.83% match on round one of the trust fund distribution this year, almost identical to the round one match of 26.64% last year. 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

Although it is too early to predict an exact distribution percentage for Fall of 2013, the match should be significantly higher due to the passage of the CPA legislation this past July. That legislation calls for $25 million from the state's FY13 budget surplus to be added to the CPA Trust Fund in time for the October 2013 distribution. In addition, collections for the trust fund at the state's registries of deeds have rebounded strongly in the past few months.

To determine the exact distribution each community receives, DOR follows a formula in the CPA law that calls for up to three rounds of trust fund distributions. During the first six years of CPA (2002 through 2007), the trust fund provided a 100 percent match to local surcharge revenues on the first round. The match then began to fall due to the popularity of the CPA program and the decline in CPA trust fund collections at the registries of deeds. Since 2010, the first round percentage match has remained steady at around 26%.

Statistics From This Year's Distribution: 

  • Total municipalities receiving a trust fund distribution on 10-15-12: 148 
  • Match percentage received by municipalities with a CPA local property tax surcharge of less than 3%: 26.83% 
  • Match percentage received by municipalities with the maximum CPA local property tax surcharge of 3%: Range of 27.24% to 100% 
  • Number of municipalities receiving a full 100% match: 9
  • Average percentage match statewide: 37.64%
  • Total payout in first round distribution: $23,941,037
  • Total payout in second round distribution: $2,489,248 
  • Total payout in third round distribution: $1,291,757

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