Lawmakers Hear Push for CHIP program to Fund Housing Infrastructure with TIF-like Tool

Michael Weinberger, executive chair of the coalition Let's Build Homes, told the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee on April 15 that S.127 — the so-called CHIP bill — is designed to help municipalities pay for infrastructure that makes housing projects feasible.

Weinberger said the coalition, which he described as representing “more than 200 organizations from all 14 counties” and “over 700 individuals,” sees the measure as a way to increase overall housing supply, not only permanently affordable units. “We have a deep problem here that we have been digging a hole that we've been digging deeper for decades now,” he said, adding that production needs to be “far in excess of the current creeping higher levels.”

The bill, as described in testimony, would let municipalities and third-party sponsors use incremental property-tax revenues tied to a single project (not a whole district) to finance necessary infrastructure — water, sewer, roads, digital infrastructure, and qualified flood-resilience expenses — that otherwise make projects financially infeasible. Witnesses repeatedly contrasted CHIP’s single-site, project-focused structure with larger TIF districts and argued the narrower approach reduces ongoing administrative burdens and eliminates “background growth” capture associated with broad TIFs.

Developer and municipal examples illustrated the financing gap the bill aims to close. David White, president of Weidenberg Real Estate Advisors, described two stalled Vermont projects he advised: an 87-unit workforce housing…