House conference negotiators ask JFO to model cap options as $40M limit, $5M add-on debated

House conference negotiators on a housing bill asked the Joint Fiscal Office to run financial models showing how different cap levels would affect the program, saying the current $40,000,000 cap and a $5,000,000 add-on held by the governor and the Joint Fiscal Committee may not be sufficient.

The request came as participants debated whether affordable and moderate‑income housing should be included in the dollar cap, whether to set the cap by a dollar amount or by a target number of projects, and how tax increment and education‑fund shares would change project financing.

Negotiators said the program’s cap and the percentage retained for debt financing interact and that the group needed concrete modeling to test proposals. “We are sticking by our last question … we are still strong on the caps and still strong on the 10 years, not the 8 years,” Participant 1, Participant, said, repeating a position that the group described as its standing…