Regional planning commissions tell House Appropriations federal grant cuts would hamper disaster response and local infrastructure projects

Executives from three Vermont regional planning commissions told the House Appropriations Committee on April 23 that recent federal grant terminations and funding pauses are already disrupting local projects and could reduce the commissions’ ability to support towns after disasters and to secure infrastructure dollars.

Charlie Baker, executive director of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, said RPCs “play the role of connecting towns with federal and state resources,” providing planning, grant-writing and technical services to municipalities that lack in-house staff.

The testimony described several specific grant losses and pauses and the functions those grants supported. An EPA grant of $875,000 that would have funded active-transportation (bike and pedestrian) demonstrations was terminated and is under appeal, witnesses said. A federal health-equity pass-through to the RPCs — roughly $150,000 to $175,000 in the most recent round for the RPC portion — was canceled. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program grants that counties…