The Massachusetts Community Preservation Act: Who Benefits, Who Pays?

While the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act (CPA) has generated more than $360 million for affordable housing, open space preservation, historic preservation, and recreation since its passage in 2000, it also has resulted in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars from residents of the state’s poorest cities and towns to its wealthiest communities, according to a new Rappaport Institute Working Paper. "The Massachusetts Community Preservation Act: Who Benefits, Who Pays?," written by Robin Sherman, who earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government this year, and David Luberoff, the Rappaport Institute’s executive director, also finds that a lack of standardized reporting requirements makes it difficult to precisely determine how communities spend CPA funds, and thus how effective and efficient the program has been. Sherman, the former town planner in Montague, received the Kennedy School's Taubman Urban Prize for a research paper that provided the basis for the new study.

The report's appendix, which contains CPA-related information and some demographic data for all of the state's 351 cities and towns is available in as both a pdf file and as a spreadsheet.

Articles and Op-eds

"A Study's Challenge to the CPA," Westborough Town News, 8/2/2007.

"Report: Newton Enjoys Benefits from CPA Flaws, by Lindsay Parietti, Newton Tab, 8/1/2007.

"Study from Harvard's Kennedy School Criticizes Community Preservation Act," by Jim Hickey, The Vineyard Gazette, 7/31/2007.

"Guilty as Charged," Editorial, Cape Cod Times, 7/30/2007.

"Community Preservation Act Hurts Urban Areas, Report Reveals," by David Kibbe, South Coast Standard Times, 7/30/2007.

"Open Space for Improvement," Editorial, The Boston Globe, 7/29/2007.

"Report: Many Towns Shun CPA Despite Paying for It," by Lindsay Parietti, Newton Tab, 7/28/2007.

"Does the Cape Get Too Much Aid?" by David Kibbe, Cape Cod Times, 7/27/2007.

"Report: Many Towns Shun CPA Despite Paying for It," by Lindsay Parietti, Daily News Tribune, 7/278/2007.

"Revisiting Community Preservation," Op-ed by Robin Sherman and David Luberoff, The Boston Globe, 7/27/2007.

"Report: Many Towns Shun CPA Despite Paying for It," by Lindsay Parietti, Metrowest Daily News, 7/26/2007.

"Study Finds Inequalities in State Community Preservation Act Funding for Cities and Towns, Kennedy School of Government Press Release, 7/26/2007.

"Editorial: A Study's Challenge to the CPA," Milford Daily News, 7/24/2007.

"Study Says CPA Steers Money to Wealthy Towns" by Jim O'Sullivan, CommonWealth Magazine, Summer 2007.

"Wealthy Towns Getting Most CPA Benefit," by Lindsey Parietti, Boston Herald, 7/22/2007.