Senate committee debates project‑based TIF bill (CHIP); split on affordable housing requirement

The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs on Monday reviewed draft 3.2 of the Community and Housing Infrastructure Program, a project‑based tax increment financing (TIF) proposal commonly called CHIP, and debated whether the program should require a share of units to be affordable and how to define affordability.

The draft, presented by counsel John Ray, would allow municipalities to capture tax increment for infrastructure tied to housing development and other improvements. Committee members and stakeholders focused discussion on three core policy questions: whether affordable housing should be a mandatory project criterion, how to define “affordable,” and what share of a project must be housing versus mixed use.

The committee’s discussion matters because the bill would create a new mechanism to finance infrastructure using future tax increments. That affects municipal borrowing, the share of education property tax retained, and how developers and municipalities negotiate contract safeguards and project boundaries.

John Ray, counsel to the committee, said the text contains placeholder language to show how an affordable‑housing criterion might read and that the draft borrows existing Title 24 definitions for affordability. “What you see here, this wall of yellow text that’s on the first page, this is placeholder language,” Ray said, describing the inserted statutory language as illustrative rather than final.

David White argued against embedding an affordability mandate in the bill. “I would like to make the pitch that you do…