Voters Approve Ballot Question By Wide Margin

The Community Preservation Act (CPA) passed yesterday in a landslide referendum. The act will provide Cambridge with state funds to match the City’s spending on affordable housing, open space and historical preservation.

“This means there will be an additional $5 million from the state with no increase in taxes,” said Scott Cavanaugh, the manager of the Yes on One campaign.

Seventy -one percent of voters marked their ballots in favor of the CPA, in answer to yesterday’s only referendum question.

“It’s a good day for Cambridge and for those looking for more affordable housing,” State Representative Jarrett Barrios said.

The large and diverse list of supporters for the CPA was a major reason for its landslide passage, according to Cavanaugh.

All the previous term’s city councillors as well as seventeen out of the nineteen candidates for City Council came out in support of the act.

Even Cambridge business interests gave their support to the CPA, which will not raise property taxes in Cambridge although similar initiatives could cause tax hikes in other Mass. communities.

“The Cambridge Chamber of Commerce supported it. That was huge to have the business community behind it,” Cavanaugh said.

Around 10 p.m., Chairperson of the Cambridge Election CommissionWayne A. Drugan announced the ballot question results from thirty-three of forty-two total precincts. Crowds of observers cheered when he announced the CPA had won 71 percent of the counted votes.

“I was delighted to see Cambridge become one of the first cities to come in in favor of [the CPA],” Barrios said.

Some voters still remain wary of the CPA though.

Bill Walsh, a former Cambridge city councillor known for his stance against rent control, said he believes the passage of the Community Preservation Act could lead to a future tax increase.

“I have never believed the government when then they say they won’t increase taxes,” Walsh said.

According to the language of the CPA, matching state funds only are given to communities that meets requirements for spending on affordable housing, open space and historical preservation. Cambridge currently meets this standard and will not need to increase taxes to receive state funding. However, in cities where the cutoff is not met, it allows the city government to increase taxes up to 3 percent in order to get the funding.

Walsh charges that the CPA is a way to get around the state “Proposition 2 1/2,” which requires a referendum override in order for a municipality to increase local property taxes more than 2 1/2 percent.

But Barrios said the charge that the CPA would increase taxes is ridiculous.

“In some Republican fantasy land, there’s always a tax increase, but not today, and not in Cambridge,” Barrios said.

Twelve other Mass. municipalities besides Cambridge also voted on the Community Preservation Act yesterday.

In Boston, voters rejected the act that Thomas M. Menino had endorsed.

The measure in Boston would have led to a 2 percent property tax increase. A number of business interests sponsored advertisements to oppose the act.

Another fifteen communities are planning similar Community Preservation Act ballot initiatives in the spring.