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Committee trims proposed housing grant program; agrees to $2M appropriation to ACCD for housing and related infrastructure with post-spend reporting
Summary
The committee agreed to a $2,000,000 cash appropriation to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development for development of housing and related infrastructure, removing language that would have established a continuing grant program in the capital bill.
The House Corrections and Institutions Committee on March 20 decided not to establish a new, ongoing housing grant program in the capital bill. Instead, members agreed to appropriate $2,000,000 in cash to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) for the development of housing and related infrastructure, and to place the funds in the capital cash fund subaccount B (other infrastructure). The committee instructed staff to include reporting requirements so ACCD must report back to the General Assembly on the projects funded and the project-selection criteria used.
Committee members debated whether the $2 million should be the seed of a continuing grant program or a one-time, time-limited allocation. Several members said they did not want the capital bill to create a permanent grant vehicle that would become an ongoing pressure on future capital budgets. After discussion, the committee narrowed the bill language to a single line item: an appropriation of $2,000,000 to ACCD for development of housing and related infrastructure and removed the more elaborate grant-program language. Members also discussed the inclusion of terms such as “affordable housing” and “permanently affordable”; members agreed that adding a statutory definition or strict permanent-affordability requirement risked slowing or blocking the near-term projects that the money is intended to support.
To provide transparency and a post‑spend check, the committee added a requirement that the ACCD secretary report to the General Assembly on the projects funded, the criteria used for selection, and the application process adopted. Committee members said they favored that post-spend reporting rather than creating a multi-year grant program that would require additional rule-making and ongoing oversight.
Committee staff said the appropriation will appear as a cash line item in subaccount B on the committee’s spreadsheet and in the appropriations bill; it will not be listed as a bonded capital project in this bill. Staff will circulate the final one-line appropriation language to committee members.
