CPA funding to be examined at June 20 meeting

Date: 6/14/2011

June 15, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — As a part of the June 20 public hearing on the town's $73.5 million operating budget, the City Council will also hear public comment on a pending resolution to revoke the 1 percent property tax surcharge now imposed to create the town's Community Preservation Fund under the state's Community Preservation Act.

Titled "A Resolution to Revoke Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44B, Section 3 through and including 7 of the Community Preservation Act (CPA)," the resolution, sponsored by City Councilors John F. Walsh and James P. Cichetti, asks to have the decision to revoke this surcharge placed on the ballot for this November's election. At that point the town's voters would have the opportunity to choose to revoke or maintain the surcharge.

Walsh told Reminder Publications this is not the first time in recent memory that a move to revoke the 1 percent surcharge has come before the City Council.

"It was brought forward two years ago," Walsh said. "Something very similar was put out as a resolution and the council voted it down."

Walsh said he believed the vote at that time was 9-2.

The suggestion to revisit revoking the surcharge was suggested to him by a resident, Walsh said.

"[He] came to me with the co-sponsor and we sat down and listened to what he had to say," Walsh said. "He certainly made a lot of sense."

Walsh said the change in the economy since the resolution was enacted in 2001 also had an effect on his decision to sponsor the resolution.

"When [the surtax] first came out, we were getting a dollar from the state for every dollar we put into the fund," Walsh said. "Now the [match] is 30 percent on the dollar."

He said many citizens have also found issue with the restrictive nature of how CPA funds can be used.

"A lot of people were in favor of using it to put a new track in at the high school . that isn't a project that can be done with CPA money now," Walsh said.

The resolution to revoke the 1 percent surcharge was also a topic of discussion at a June 8 fund-raiser for the School Street Barn hosted by Agawam Historic Association and Agawam Historical Commission at The Federal.

Historical Association President Rick Bellico said it was important that people from the fund-raiser attend the June 20 meeting to help the public understand the actual impact of the surcharge on their tax bill.

"We need to break it down to the smallest charge per household," Bellico said. "It's not that expensive."

Henry Koslowski, chair of the Historical Commission, noted that the 1 percent surcharge amounted to a payment of approximately $28.50 per year for the average Agawam homeowner.

Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com