It's Time for a Tax Cut (Part 2)

The citizen's petition to reduce the CPA surcharge from 3% to 1.5% has been filed and should be on the Warrant for Town Meeting (May 5-6.) It'll likely be one of the last articles discussed. If you would like an email reminder during Town Meeting of when to show up to vote for this, please click below and subscribe to my mailing list.

Remember, these decisions are made at Town Meeting where we typically have 100-150 people (fewer by the end of the meeting) deciding. Please add yourself to this mailing list so that you can cast your vote for this tax cut.

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Since the filing of the citizen's petitions there has been much chatter about all the great projects that have been funded by CPA over the years. I don't deny any of that. CPA has been an amazing program for Sudbury. However, in the last couple of years, we have seen the checks and balances of the program slide in quality. We shouldn’t have a $4.5 Million backlog in projects.  We shouldn’t be approving some $500,000 for new Park and Recreation projects when almost $1 Million in previous Park and Recreation projects haven’t even been started.

The following charts illustrate how a reduction in the CPA surcharge from 3% to 1.5% will not necessarily result in a reduction of projects or services. We have built up a huge surplus.

The first chart shows a projection of CPA funds out about 10 years. The projections are conservative with a 2.5% increase in Town Budget every year, a 3% CPA surcharge, and a 21% state match. The bars in Green (surplus fund balance) and Blue (projected CPA revenue) are money that can go towards CPA projects. The Red line indicates our debt payment obligations for land purchases that we have made in the past. You can see that the Green and Blue revenue easily covers those costs.

The large Red column shows the backlog / encumbrances that we currently have. These are projects that are slated to happen, but funds have not been spent. FY24 was the first year that we showed such a large backlog / encumbrance. In FY17 we reported a $100 encumbrance (hardly shows on this graph).

Data for this graph taken from MA Department of Revenue and the Sudbury 2024 Town Meeting Warrant

The second chart below shows a conservative projection with a 2.5% increase in Town Budget every year, a 1.5% CPA surcharge, and a 18% state match. You can see in this projection that the Green (surplus balance) and Blue (projected CPA revenue) are still easily covering our debt obligations with still Millions available for projects.

The CPA is a great program. But we need to hold staff and committees accountable for projects promised to the community. Projects are being promised, but not delivered, and the projects that should be going through the Town's Capital Planning Process are not. We, the tax payers, need to step in.  We have been very generous with our 3% surcharge, but we can reduce that without worry that we don't have enough funds in the case an important project comes up. 

This reduction of CPA will be a Tax Cut!  Look at that line on your tax bill, it will go to ½ of what it shows now. Let's send a message to town committees and staff that they need to step it up and start being accountable to the tax payers and treating the tax revenue with respect.