The Massachusetts House has approved a significant overhaul of the state’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) that would give Newton and other cities and towns more flexibility in the law and presumably more matching funds. Here’s an except from the State House News story …

The amendment adopted Monday would potentially double the amount of state funding available to provide matches to cities and towns by allocating up to $25 million in surplus revenue from the fiscal 2012 budget to the community preservation trust fund. Currently, funding comes from fees collected on deeds and totals close to $26 million a year.

The proposal would also allow cities and towns to use CPA funding to rehabilitate existing parks, playgrounds and athletic fields, rather than only build new ones, and gives communities flexibility to use revenue sources aside from a property tax surcharge to fund their community preservation accounts.

Good idea?