Town of Whitman Becomes 6th Community to Place CPA on November Ballot

In the midst of a heatwave, spread out across the local high school baseball field, hundreds of residents in the town of Whitman gathered last night to hold their annual "spring" town meeting - with the question of CPA adoption on the warrant. And in what has turned out to be a positive trend during challenging times, Whitman residents officially approved of placing CPA adoption on the November ballot, becoming the 6th community to do so this year.

Voters in Whitman will now decide whether or not to adopt a 1% CPA surcharge for their community, with an exemption for the first $100,000 of residential property value and exemptions for low income and low & moderate income senior homeowners. With a 1% CPA surcharge and the aforementioned exemptions, the town will raise approximately $187,000 in local CPA revenues annually for recreation, historic preservation, affordable housing, and open space projects. Adopting CPA would also make the town eligible to receive annual distributions of funds from the statewide Community Preservation Trust Fund, monies that are available only to communities that have adopted the Act.

There are still a few communities across the state still weighing their options for CPA adoption in 2020 - and while it won't be the massive CPA election that we were expecting before the pandemic, there's still a possiblity that even more cities and towns will add CPA to their November ballot. Keep an eye on our CPA elections page for further updates.