November 2019 Statewide Trust Fund Distribution Announced

UPDATE: In January 2020, the Department of Revenue issued revised data for the November 2019 Trust Fund Distribution, so the information below is out of date.  Please click here to view the updated data for the November 2019 distribution.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) has released the Community Preservation Trust Fund distribution for each CPA municipality. DOR reported that this year's distribution was released one week late due to problems with "an interface file" in their system that transfers state payments to municipalities.

All CPA communities received 14.1% of their local surcharge revenue on round one of the trust fund distribution this year, with 3% communities receiving a higher percentage. In total, more than $25 million has been distributed to the 173 communities eligible for a distribution.

However, there are still a number of questions regarding this year's trust fund distribution:

• Budget Surplus Dollars: On December 11th, the House and Senate passed the long-delayed FY19 surplus spending bill - and the state comptroller's office expects that the $20 million in budget surplus funds for the CPA Trust Fund should be available. We are still awaiting the complete SBFR report for final details, but should the surplus funding be available, those funds will be distributed to CPA communities at a later date. DOR has indicated they will recalculate the CPA Trust Fund distribution and make a second payment to communities shortly after they receive notice on the surplus.
• Distribution Adjustments: Due to the fact that three communities did not file their CPA revenue report on time (Form CP-1), the distribution amounts that communities received today will need to be recalculated and small adjustments will be made. DOR is planning to make those adjustments when they pay out additional money from the state budget surplus. Should CPA not receive budget surplus funds, next year's CPA Trust Fund amounts will be slightly adjusted to account for the late communities.

We will update this page when further information becomes available. Until then, you can click the link below to view the current trust fund distribution information for your community:

DOR released updated CPA distribution information in January 2020: click here to view the updated information for your community.

Further Resources:

• "Budget Holdup Blocking $20 Mil CPA Fund Distribution" - State House News Service
• Month-to-month CPA Trust Fund collections at the state's Registries of Deeds
• 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.