Ways & Means committee favors amendment to S.127 to reshape CHIP housing program

The House Ways & Means Committee on a straw poll voted in favor of a floor amendment to S.127 that would restructure the state’s CHIP housing-infrastructure provisions, alter eligibility language and program governance, and extend the program review timeline.

The amendment, which committee members favorably polled 10–0 with one member absent, would: replace the separate CHIP board by adding two voting members (the executive directors of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency and the Vermont Housing Conservation Board) and a nonvoting member (the commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development) to the Vermont Economic Progress Council; change the program’s definition from “middle income” housing to “mixed income” developments; remove the bill’s prior location criteria so financing decisions are separate from geographic eligibility; keep a $40,000,000 program cap while authorizing VEPC to seek up to $5,000,000 more per year with gubernatorial application and Joint Fiscal Committee approval; require VEPC to act on completed applications within 45 days; and extend the sunset/review date for statewide TIF to match CHIP at Dec. 31, 2031.

Why it matters: the changes would shift governance and approval timelines for the…