Committee reviews CHIP amendment that removes board, broadens eligibility and places cap on TIF retention

Legislative counsel John Gray told the House General and Housing Committee on May 22 that an amendment to the CHIP (housing infrastructure) proposal—offered as an amendment to the Ways and Means amendment—strikes out the tax increment financing pieces of the Ways and Means language and replaces them with a consolidated CHIP text covering definitions, project criteria and rulemaking.

The change removes a separately created CHIP board and directs the agency that approves CHIP applications (referred to in the transcript as “Pepsi”) to perform approvals and rulemaking. "The board concept has been removed entirely," Gray said, and the amendment instead adds housing expertise to the existing approving council’s membership for CHIP decisions.

The amendment replaces earlier phrasing that referenced "middle income housing" with "mixed income" developments in the definitions, and expands the program purpose to make CHIP eligible for both rural and urban areas statewide. Gray said that change is "more tonal than substantive," but that the stated purpose will be part of the agency’s rulemaking priorities.

Committee discussion focused on several substantive mechanics: the "but for" test that applications must satisfy (whether proposed infrastructure improvements or the housing development itself would occur in a significantly different or less…