In 2016, Boston voters approved a measure to add a one-percent surcharge to real estate taxes. They did it mainly because they were convinced by advocates like Mayor Walsh that it would help spur local projects that might otherwise not get funded.
The approval of Question 5 brought Boston into the Community Preservation Act fund, which other cities and towns have been paying into – and using— for decades. Last week, the city council approved the first round of funding— nearly $35 million spread across 56 projects in Boston. Eleven of the first-round projects are in Dorchester and Mattapan, including a new park near the Talbot Avenue station on the Fairmount Line, repairs to a historic fountain on Bowdoin Street, and a new dog park feature at Garvey Park in Neponset.
One of the largest disbursements is a $600,000 grant for the Joseph Lee K-8 School that will help the school build a new playground accessible to its 700 students, of whom 40 percent have special needs, especially autism.
Lee School principal Kim Crowley told the Reporter’s Yukun Zhang last week that she has been trying to get funding for the playground for 13 years.
Laquisa Burke, president and founder of West of Washington Coalition (WOW), said the $460,000 set aside to build the park near Talbot Avenue station will propel that project from dream status to reality.
“It’s always been a dream for the community to have a park. We already had the idea, but we didn’t know how to pay for it,” Burke told the Reporter.
Other projects approved last week include a new park in the center of Grove Hall, a mixed-income housing proposal near the Morton Street station in Mattapan, renovation of the field and track in Norfolk Park, and an urban farm on Flint Street in Mattapan.
The promises made by Question 5 proponents are coming to fruition. Boston could have been participating in the Community Preservation Fund since its inception in 2000, but voters shot down a 2001 ballot measure that would have added a two-percent surcharge to property tax.
It’s fair to say we’ve likely left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table for neighborhood projects by waiting so long to get in on the state program, which now includes 175 communities.
But the good news is this: There’s more to come. As Boston booms and adds more property to the tax rolls, we should see a boost in the funds set aside for CPA projects. The $35 million awarded last week is considerably more than the $20 million that was estimated as an annual dividend for Boston. There will be another round of funding that will likely be distributed early next year in a competitive process that begins with an online application at boston.gov.
– Bill Forry
