Editorial | The Boston Globe | November 30, 2018

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2018/11/30/voters-say-raise-taxes-preserve-parks-but-beacon-hill-isn-keeping-with-demand/mt1Y00W9LXGaEmqd9MlRPJ/story.html

Quincy is restoring a bell tower at a historic church; Bedford chose to fix up a skate park; Cambridge put its money into a rehab of affordable housing. What those projects, along with hundreds of others like them all over Massachusetts, have in common is that they were paid for with a wonky government program that’s rightly celebrated as a runaway success.

Now, though, the program — a state-local partnership known as the Community Preservation Act — is becoming a victim of its own popularity. The number of towns and cities participating has ballooned to 175 over the past two decades, but the main state funding source hasn’t grown with it. Boston’s vote to join the program in 2016 put an especially big strain on its finances, forcing the state’s contribution to be split among even more municipalities.

Advocates, including local leaders, are asking the state to provide more revenue to account for the program’s growth. Governor Charlie Baker is on board. Now it just needs the Legislature’s blessing.

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