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Conference committee agrees to move municipal bond-bank funds into housing bucket, adjusts first-time homebuyer language
Summary
Budget conference members agreed to shift municipal bond bank/revolving loan funds into the housing bucket and move those funds under VHFA administration while proposing more flexible first-time homebuyer spending requirements; members asked staff to supply precise drafting language and dollar allocations.
Conference committee members working on the budget on May 6 agreed in principle to move municipal bond-bank and municipal infrastructure revolving loan funds into the housing appropriations "bucket" and place administration of that money with VHFA, while keeping the dollars earmarked for housing purposes.
The committee discussed reallocating roughly $7,500,000 in bond-bank/revolving loan funds and moving $1.6 million into the housing account; Speaker 1, Committee member, described the plan as “moving to the VHFA because the revolving loan funds…we're not expecting to spend $8,000,000 in 1 year.”
Members also debated a requirement tied to a first-time homebuyer program that had previously required spending a full $1,000,000 on first-time buyers. Speaker 1 proposed lowering the guaranteed first-time buyer minimum to $250,000 and allowing the remainder to be used for other housing priorities such as "the missing middle," subject to drafting the precise language. Speaker 2, Committee member, asked staff to provide specific dollar amounts and language so the committee could finalize the change.
Committee members said they would keep the base funding intact and reclassify certain one-time and base components consistently so that the committee could track "what is in the base plus the one-time additions." They also said they would accept adding $1,000,000 back for Brownfields remediation, per the Senate position.
No formal roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript; members agreed to request staff (including Grama and JFO) draft statutory or appropriation language and bring it back for review at a later meeting.
