House Appropriations strips appropriations, tax credits from housing bill; makes program duties contingent on budget

The House Appropriations Committee on March 21 approved a committee substitute that removes line-item appropriations and tax-credit language from H.479, the House general housing bill, and makes several statutory duties contingent on funding in the fiscal 2026 budget. The committee also voted to report H.167 — the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters measure — as amended so the program exists in statute but will not be implemented until funding is provided.

The change to H.479 was embodied in a substitute amendment (draft 1.1) presented to the committee. Cameron Wood of the Office of Legislative Counsel described the amendment as a package that “remove[s] all of the appropriations, including the tax credits,” and explained the substitute would defer those funding decisions to the budget process. The amendment also replaces an earlier Ways and Means recommendation by sunsetting certain tax credits and removing a municipal 1% local-option tax authority on short-term rentals, as incorporated into the committee substitute.

Why it matters: The committee’s action preserves statutory policy language while moving decisions about actual dollar allocations — and any revenue impacts from tax credits — into the committee’s forthcoming budget work. That separates…