Opinion: What’s the Color of Your Money?

At the Finance Committee meeting on April 7, 2026, when discussing whether to authorize more Amherst Community Preservation Act (CPA) dollars for the Jones Library building project, District 2 Councilor Lynn Griesemer made the following statement:

“Yes, I own the statement “not a penny more”, but here’s where I differ: I don’t think of CPA as being the same color of money. I never have. I never agreed that the million that they already got was part of the taxpayers’ money. The state does provide a minimal match; it doesn’t provide a lot, unfortunately. It was supposed to provide a lot. But Ana [Devlin Gauthier], you are absolutely correct. We never voted on the ‘not a penny more’, so that is not a council policy. I do want to point out people keep saying, ‘Oh, this is in the budget. It’ll happen anyway.’ Yes, it’s in the budget, but whether the budget is fully funded is the question, and that’s the question people keep coming back to.” 

Let’s break that down.

Griesemer said that she does not now, nor did she ever, believe Amherst CPA dollars are taxpayer money. 

Really?!? It’s a little hard to believe that someone who is on their third term on the Town Council and has lived here since well before Amherst voted to participate in the Community Preservation Act, doesn’t understand that these funds are taken directly from taxpayers in the form of a property tax surcharge. If she needs help figuring out how much she herself is paying, let me lend a hand. 

Go to the town website (amherstma.gov) 

Click on the “ONLINE PAYMENTS” icon 

Click on the “Real Estate / Property Taxes” hyperlink

On the next page, type in your  street address (house number and street name)

On the next page, click on a year to “View bill”

Now click on “Charge” in the column on the left. 

The top figure on the next screen will show her exactly how much she paid in “CPA SURCHARGE”. It’s a bit of a walk, but you, too, can learn how much money you have paid over the years. A quick calculation showed that the amount I have paid has increased by nearly 600% over the past 20 years. 

This is not an argument against Amherst’s participation in the CPA. It is, however, a reminder to Town Councilors that Amherst taxpayers do not get a say in whether they contribute to this fund. Members of the CPAC, all of whom are ultimately appointed by the Town Manager (whether directly as at-large members or as representatives of committees that are also appointed by him), are making recommendations on how to spend that money. But, it is the job of the Town Councilors, whom we elect, to decide whether those expenditures are the best use of our money given the full picture of the town’s finances. Which brings us back to …

Griesemer said that she never agreed that the $1 million the library project already received from CPA was part of taxpayers’ money and that the Town Council never agreed they would not  spend more of it on this project. 

Perhaps she wasn’t paying close enough attention in December 2023 when the Town Council talked for hours about whether to authorize an additional $9 million for this project. In order to win their vote, the Town Manager was asked to amend the Memorandum of Understanding between the Town and the Library. The resulting document included the following language:

“The Library also understands that the Town will not pay more than its Town Share committed by this agreement and the previous Agreements.”

It acknowledged the $15.8 million contribution by the town, the $1 million in CPA debt, and the MBLC grant. It also obligated the library to cover the balance. By voting to increase the authorization to the total project cost of $46.1 million, Griesemer and the rest of the Town Council were also committing to protect the town from further town expense for this project. To say now that she never meant that to apply to our CPA dollars is to admit that she was not entirely forthright back then and that her assurances of “not a penny more” were more tactical than genuine.

Griesemer’s final argument is truly bewildering, namely that there is some question about whether the project budget is fully funded. 

When the Town Council authorized the $46.1 million, it fully funded the project. Did she not understand the nature of her vote? When the Town Manager signed the construction contract in April 2025 that included the items in the current CPA request, it guaranteed that the work will get done. The Town Manager’s memo to the Town Council in April 2025 reasserted that the library would be held responsible for its share which would be raised from private, federal, and state sources. Did Griesemer and the other councilors not comprehend all of this when they voted against rescinding the authorization for the project? Every time a vote has been required to move the project forward, the project team has assured that the $46.1 million total project cost would not be exceeded. If Griesemer is now suggesting that she didn’t and doesn’t believe that to be the case, she has certainly been very quiet about that concern.

The Town Council will soon have the opportunity to show us whether they are as good as their word.

When it comes to this project, Griesemer and several of her fellow councilors are only too eager to spend our money. Fortunately, more and more of our Town Councilors have had enough. We will soon find out how many of them think they are playing with multicolored Monopoly money or understand that their fiscal responsibility demands that they act in the best interests of the town and not this project’s fundraising arm.

Maria Kopicki is a resident of Amherst’s District 5

Image: depositphotos.com