What's this? A tax cut?

Taxes seem to rise inexorably, but in Duxbury local officials are contemplating a cut in the property tax that helps fund community preservation.

A proposal to reduce the town's current 3 percent surcharge to 0.25 percent will be brought before voters at the annual Town Meeting in March, via a citizens' petition.

The Community Preservation Act uses the funds for open space purchases, historic preservation, and affordable housing. But taxpayers also bear the burden of other tax increases for building projects that are pending.

"Our taxes exceed 150 percent of what they were back in 2001 when we voted the Community Preservation Act," said resident James Sullivan, author of the proposed cut. "This is an avenue to lower taxes so we can put a new roof on a school. It's a way to pay for much-needed projects without increasing taxes."

In Duxbury, officials are considering construction of a police station and a fire station, replacing the roof at a school, and an extensive renovation of the municipal pool. Each of those projects would require a temporary tax increase, called a debt exclusion.

So, the CPA tax would drop, but other property taxes would go up, according to this story in Globe South.

Duxbury was one of the first communities to adopt a property-tax surcharge in 2001 under the state's Community Preservation Act. Now the town could become the first to scale back that levy.

"When I first brought this idea to the selectmen a couple months ago, I was looked at like I was a crazy man," Sullivan said of the petition. "The Community Preservation Fund is kind of a sacred cow to many, but I think it's time to revisit it."