It's actually a better deal than that: the statewide Community Preservation Trust Fund that was created when the bill was signed into law in 2000 is funded both by property taxes from participating communities and a surcharge on every real estate transaction in the state. The real estate surcharges add up to about $60 million a year, and if there's a state budget surplus (like the one we have now), that money can also be added to the fund. We've essentially been leaving free money on the table for over twenty years because we would have gotten the money we raised via taxes plus a share of the money raised by the state. Here's a map of the towns/cities that have already adopted it: map