State House Deciding On CPA Funding Right Now
Feb. 11, 2014: Budget season is underway on Beacon Hill, and the Coalition is advocating for another $25 million for CPA, to come from this year's state budget surplus.
Right now, all 160 State Representatives are finalizing their list of programs they want included in the state budget, to be released Wednesday April 9, 2014. We need to make sure that funding for the CPA Trust Fund is on their list of priorities before it is submitted to the House Committee on Ways & Means.
We are asking CPA advocates from across the state to contact their State Representative this week to request that CPA be included on their list of state budget priorities. Similar to last year, we are asking that $25 million from the FY14 state budget surplus be transferred to the statewide CPA Trust Fund. Without the additional $25 million, the trust fund distribution will plummet to an estimated 23% this coming fall.
Contact information for your State Representative can be found here. If you don't know the name of your State Rep., click here to search using your home address.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. Why only contact State Representatives now? The House is the first to prepare and present a state budget, which they are working on right now. Once the budget passes in the House in late April, the Senate will begin debating their version. We'll remind CPA advocates to contact your State Senator in April.
Q. Where will the $25 million come from? Last year, the state transferred $25 million from the state budget surplus to the CPA Trust Fund. While a surplus is not guaranteed, the state does have a budget surplus most years. We are asking the legislature to transfer $25 million from this year's (FY14) budget surplus to the CPA Trust Fund.
Q. Is this likely to happen? When the House passed the $25 million last year, legislative leaders indicated their full intention to provide $25 million from the budget surplus in future years, as well. CPA is incredibly popular across the state, but we need to remind legislators how important it is to job creation and quality of life in Massachusetts.
Q. What was the impact of the last $25 million transfer? After four years of extremely low trust fund distributions, all CPA communities received a minimum of a 52% match last year. The increase has brought new life to the program, with seven new communities, including four cities, adopting CPA right after the funding was announced. In addition, with the new flexibility in the law, more than $40 million in recreational projects have been funded in the last year, rehabilitating parks, playgrounds and athletic fields across the Commonwealth.