Special Town Meeting, Monday, October 26, 7:00 p.m., Westford Academy
Article 10 does not kill the Community Preservation Act. It lowers the local surcharge from the maximum 3% to 2%, and leaves the program in place for open space, historic preservation, parks, and affordable housing.
Westford has paid the top rate for more than twenty years. The first $100,000 of a home’s value is already exempt, and low-income households and moderate-income seniors can be exempt entirely. Everyone else pays the full 3% on top of the tax bill. Over the last ten years that surcharge raised about $28 million. The fund’s balance is about $4.4 million, with roughly $1.2 million set aside for debt and about $3.2 million still available. At 3%, the town collects about $2.5 million a year. At 2%, it would still collect about $1.6 million — enough to cover the debt and stay near the ten-year average spend.
The cut returns about $900,000 a year to the people who paid it. On a typical Westford house, that is on the order of $70 to $100 off the CPA line. The Community Preservation Committee opposes the article and warns that the town would lose a state premium match of about $56,000 a year. That match was once dollar-for-dollar. It is now a fraction of what was promised, and only towns at the 3% maximum qualify for the extra rounds. Giving up about $56,000 in match to keep about $900,000 in local pockets is a trade taxpayers can afford.
Neighbors have already made it. Carlisle is at 2%. Acton is at 1.5%. Westford and Tyngsborough are still at the ceiling. A yes vote does not put Westford out of the program. It puts the surcharge back in line with what the fund can actually use, at a moment when the operating budget is tight and the tax bill is not.
CPA stays. The rate comes down. The reserve is already there.
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