Letter: Reserve CPA Funds for Their True Purpose
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on April 2, 2026.
I write to urge you to abide by the true intent of the Community Preservation Act and recognize that the Jones Library request for funding does not conform.
The Massachusetts CPA has long directed that funds be used to supplement (increase) local efforts, rather than supplant (replace) existing budgetary funding for projects.
Massachusetts Department of Revenue Guidelines clearly state:
“Fund monies may not be spent:
- To supplant funds being used for existing expenses, even if they serve community preservation purposes. The CP Fund is a supplementary funding source intended to increase available resources for community preservation acquisitions and initiatives. G.L. c. 44B, § 6.”
The document goes on:
“Once a community authorizes a borrowing with another financing source for debt service, it cannot amend or change the financing source to a community preservation fund financing source. This is prohibited under the “non-supplanting” provision of the CPA. G.L. c. 44B, § 6.”
Many cities and towns have written policies that reinforce rules against supplanting. E.g.
Somerville
“Chapter 44B also prohibits CPA funds from being used for maintenance or to supplant funds that have already been committed from a different funding source.”
Framingham
“Funds cannot be used for operations, maintenance, programming, community events, or to replace funds already appropriated from other sources. CPA funds must be used to advance a public purpose.”
Concord
“According to the Community Preservation Act and Department of Revenue guidance, ‘CPC fund monies may not be spent to supplant funds being used for existing expenses, even if they serve community preservation purposes. The CP fund is a supplementary funding source intended to increase available resources for community preservation acquisitions and initiatives.”
Barnstable
“The CPA is not intended to ‘replace existing operating funds, only augment them.’ The CPA Fund is a supplementary funding source intended to increase available resources for community preservation acquisitions and initiatives.”
Peperell
“CPA funds are intended to augment municipal funds, not replace existing funding. To this end, CPA funds may not be appropriated to pay for project costs that have already been appropriated from another source. Any CPA eligible costs for a project that are identified in a municipality’s capital improvement program are eligible for funding under the Act, if the municipality has not made a prior funding commitment to pay for such costs.”
Funds for the total cost of the Jones Library renovation-expansion project including historic rehabilitation work have been appropriated and authorized for borrowing by the Town Council since April 2021.
Recall that the Jones Library Trustees, the Library Capital Campaign and many project advocates helped persuade the Town Council to approve the appropriation for the project by assuring that the Library’s share of costs was in place and secure.
I urge you to stand by Town Councilors’ and Library Trustees’ pledge that no additional tax money beyond the $15,757,810 already approved will be directed to the Jones Library project. Amherst has many pressing needs for truly qualified community preservation initiatives. Reject the CPA request from Jones Library, Inc. and be on the right side of the law and past promises.
Jeff Lee
Jeff Lee is a resident of Amherst’s District 5