Senate Finance weighs TIF-based infrastructure program to spur workforce housing

The Senate Finance Committee on March 25 discussed S.127, a bill that would allow project-based tax-increment financing to fund infrastructure aimed at lowering the cost of building homes for working Vermonters.

Committee members, state housing officials and developers spent more than two hours probing whether the bill—s language is tight enough to ensure public investments produce workforce housing rather than higher-end second homes or ski condos.

The issue, lawmakers said, is a familiar one: municipal infrastructure costs (roads, water, sewer) often make the difference between a project that "pencils" and one that never starts. Alex Farrell, Commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, told the committee the program is intended to "stretch all of our affordable housing dollars much further" by covering infrastructure costs that otherwise fall to developers or to scarce subsidy dollars.

"This is a way for all of our dollars to actually stretch a lot further," Farrell said, adding the program should be flexible enough to work for small towns as well as larger jurisdictions.

Laura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, urged the committee to preserve a simple administrative model and to avoid assigning…