More Than $9 Million in Water Protection Fund Though the coronavirus reduced the amount collected, more than $9 million is available in the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund. The fund’s management board approved unanimously how to distribute the money at its October 7 meeting.
“O
ne of the key points the board has wrestled with is the equitable distribution of funds and how to best distribute those funds,” Assistant Town Manager Peter Johnson-Staub told the Falmouth Select Board on Monday, October 19. Funds will be distributed as a subsidy in the form of principal forgiveness over a four-year period. This will be a grant rather than a loan. All projects funded in any given year will receive an equal percentage subsidy, Mr. Johnson-Staub said. Municipalities will not need to apply for a subsidy from the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund because projects will already have gone through the state’s application and review process. “It is a terrific benefit for everyone because it means municipalities do not have to go through a whole extra process for these already very complicated projects and send another application to another entity for a subsidy,” Mr. Johnson-Staub said. “They got dual consideration for both the state revolving fund and Cape and Islands fund just with their one submission to the state.” He said subsidies could be as high as 25 percent of the project cost. Implemented on July 1, 2019, the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund is funded by a 2.75 percent excise tax assessed on all lodging establishments on Cape Cod, including short-term rentals like Airbnb. Money collected can go toward water quality protection projects on Cape Cod. The fund was projected to collect $15 million an-
NOVEMER, 2020 SEPTEMBER, 2016
nually. The fund collected $9.1 million during its first year, $7.7 million of which was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is not a big surprise, given COVID, but from the pre-COVID results, it looks like that $15 million dollar forecast may well have been on track,” Mr. Johnson-Staub said. Even with the reduced amount, he described the fund as “a positive development on the wastewater front.” All 15 towns on Cape Cod are “wastewater management agencies” and are legally mandated to develop and build wastewater management systems to clean up nitrogen pollution. This fund provides an additional revenue source to do so. “Hopefully, those revenues will rebound, but even if they don’t, the worst case is we offer a lower percentage subsidy for some period of time,” Mr. Johnson-Staub said. “That is certain to rebound as we continued on page 66
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