WORCESTER—With the tax rates established by the Worcester City Council on Dec. 5, the Community Preservation Act surcharge is anticipated to raise $4.4 million in FY2024, according to documents prepared by the city’s Chief Financial Officer Timothy McGourthy.
The residents of Worcester voted to pass the Community Preservation Act in November 2022, with 52 percent (or nearly 19,000 voters) in favor of the 1.5% surcharge on the ballot.
Passing the Community Preservation Act established a fund “dedicated to the acquisition, creation, preservation, and support of community housing, parks, and recreational uses, and historic buildings and resources,” according to McGourthy. City officials have already said that part of the funds from the surcharge will funnel into the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
The council approved a $13.75 per $1,000 of assessed value residential property tax rate and a $30.04 per $1,000 of assessed value for commercial, industrial, and personal properties for FY24. With the 1.5% surcharge that means the average single-family home in the city with an assessed value of $371,094 will see a $56 CPA surcharge, according to McGourthy.
The average three-family property has an assessed value of $524,309, giving three-family properties an average CPA surcharge of $88. The average commercial property’s assessed value is $1,200,621, meaning the average CPA surcharge for a commercial property is $496, according to McGourthy.
For fiscal ’24 the surcharge will be split between two property tax bills, McGourthy said. The first will be issued on Dec. 29 and the second will be issued on March 29. The surcharge will appear in a separate bill from the property taxes.
In future fiscal years, the surcharge will be split between the quarterly property tax bills.
Property owners can apply for tax abatement of the surcharge. Abatement forms will be available on the city’s Assessing Division webpage on Jan. 1 and will be accepted until April 1, according to McGourthy.
Property owners have to meet certain low and moderate-income requirements to qualify for the abatement.
The CPA has a statute that allows for the state to match funds depending on the revenue raised by the surcharge. The city will be eligible for state match in fiscal 25, according to McGourthy. If the CPA surcharge had been instituted in Worcester in fiscal ’23, the city would have been eligible for a state match of 21 percent, or $924,000, McGourthy said.
“Implementing a new surcharge on Worcester taxpayers brings financial and operational challenges for residents, business, and city government,” City Manager Eric Batista wrote in a letter to City Council. “We look forward to working with the Community Preservation Committee and you to ensure the positive outcomes that we expect to see from these new resources (becoming) available to the community.”
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her work has been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
