On The Issues | Community Preservation Act

My Position on the Community Preservation Act
I support Northampton retaining the CPA and will vote no on the ballot question to repeal. The CPA has allowed us to address significant community needs in the areas of historic preservation, open space protection, affordable housing, and recreation while leveraging almost $17 million in outside funding.

Some of these projects simply couldn't have happened, given our current budget constraints, without this dedicated funding stream. The Forbes Library renovation, for example, would remain unfinished without the CPA.

CPA funds have allowed us to protect open space in our outlying wards. They have supported affordable housing projects which help make Northampton a community where people of all income levels can live. They have helped protect important historic buildings. And they have recently been used in the Bean/Allard project for a combination of uses — open space has been protected, agriculture has been supported, critical new recreation fields are being developed, and more community garden plots will be made available for Northampton residents to use.

The CPA was put into place with every possible exemption for the tax surcharge, especially for low-income families and our older citizens. These exemptions are still in place, and ensure that the CPA surcharge is administered as fairly as possible.

Finally, as an elected official who strongly supports open government, I applaud the CPA committee for the thoughtful and transparent process used to allocate funds. The committee incorporates many of the recommendations of the Best Practices report. Its website is one of the best in city government, and contains all the information citizens need to understand the committee's work.