CPA Elections Update: Ayer Voters Increase Funding for CPA

The results are in: during the first CPA election of 2020, the town of Ayer successfully raised their local CPA surcharge from 1% to 3%. Ayer becomes only the third community in the last eight years to adopt the maximum 3% CPA local surcharge.

When Ayer originally adopted CPA back in 2001, the town actually began the program with a 3% surcharge, which was common in the early years of CPA. However, the very next year, a second ballot question succeeded in reducing the surcharge down to 1%. And after nearly two decades without any other changes, Ayer Town Meeting approved a ballot question for yesterday’s spring election to return their local CPA surcharge to the full 3% level.

While the town's spring election was scheduled for the end of April, Ayer and many other municipalities had to reschedule their local elections and town meetings due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And now, despite all of these tumultuous circumstances, voters approved an even larger investment into the quality-of-life projects that the Community Preservation Act enables. The new 3% surcharge was approved by a 55% to 45% margin and will go into effect beginning with the new fiscal year on July 1st. It is expected to raise over $500,000 annually in local revenue for open space, parks & playgrounds, historic preservation, and affordable housing. It will also allow Ayer to participate in the second and third rounds of the CPA Trust Fund distribution which are reserved for communities with the full 3% surcharge.

Passing a CPA measure like this is an important decision for communities, even without the difficulties of a pandemic looming in the background. But during good times and bad, the Community Preservation Act continues to be popular statewide, even to the point that residents are willing to double (or triple!) down on that investment. The next town making a decision on CPA this year will be West Stockbridge, as they are voting on CPA adoption later this month. No matter the result, it's encouraging to see CPA remain, as Renée Loth said in her 2016 Boston Globe Editorial, "a bright sail on a mournful sea."