Commerce committee debates CHIP bill's scope, affordability incentives, and TIF-style financing

The Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development spent the April 25 meeting discussing a draft of the Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIP, S.127), focusing on three central issues: what kinds of infrastructure the program should finance; whether the program should include incentives for affordable housing and how to define those incentives; and how the program's tax-increment mechanics should interact with existing TIF (tax increment financing) and municipal processes.