Community chest

Cities and towns that have adopted the Community Preservation Act want the state to cough up more money to offset the cost of their local projects. And state lawmakers, of course, want to keep their cities and towns happy.

So now comes a renewed push on Beacon Hill to boost funding for the Community Preservation Trust Fund, which provides state grants to local communities for preservation of open space and historic properties and for affordable housing.

And with it comes a pitch for higher fees for the entire commonwealth.

Local funds for the CPA come from a surcharge on municipal property tax bills. The state matching grants come from a surcharge on recording fees at state registries of deeds.

But supporters insist the $20 recording fee is too low — and that with more and more communities adopting the CPA, it doesn’t allow for sufficient state grant funding.

So the Senate recently voted to jack up the registry recording fees by 125 percent — to $45. Yes, that means individuals in communities that haven’t adopted the CPA would be paying more than twice the current fee to fund ballfields, bike paths and playgrounds in communities, many of them quite wealthy, that have.

A separate bill pending before the Legislature would adjust registry fees to, well, whatever amount is sufficient to guarantee a 50 percent match from the state.

Of course rarely mentioned is the fact that the law anticipated that the trust fund balance may not always allow for the full state match. It guarantees only that in the first round of grants cities and towns will get at least 5 percent of the local amount raised.

There are other ways to boost funding in the trust fund, without adding to the public’s burden. In the House, for example, Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading) called for transferring funds out of the racehorse development fund, where gaming revenue sits unspent. And Beacon Hill routinely diverts a portion of surplus state funds to the trust fund, when they’re available.

CPA supporters believe the number of participating communities and local projects should determine how much money goes into the state trust fund.

But it’s the balance in the trust fund that ought to determine how much is available for those elective municipal projects each year.