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Administration urges $3 million to continue municipal technical assistance for small towns
Summary
State Chief Recovery Officer Douglas Farnham told the House Appropriations Committee that a $3 million municipal technical assistance program (MTAP) helps lower-capacity towns apply for federal and state infrastructure funds; the initial $3 million from a prior BAA has been fully allocated to project supports and planning.
Douglas Farnham, the state’s chief recovery officer, told the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 26 that the administration requests $3 million in general funds to continue the Municipal Technical Assistance Program (MTAP), a program aimed at helping smaller or lower-capacity municipalities apply for federal and state funding.
“The initial $3,000,000 has been fully allocated out to projects,” Farnham said, describing grants and contracts with regional planning commissions (RPCs), the Vermont Council on Rural Development and other providers to support project development, planning and grant application work that smaller communities lack staff capacity to perform.
Farnham said MTAP pays for multi-year support in many cases — project managers, facilitators and consulting services — and that about half of the initial funds flowed through RPC agreements and the rest through other partners. He told members that about $1.5 million in projects remain unfunded on the program’s list and that the funded projects typically show large capital leverage — for example, $50,000 in MTAP support commonly helping a project valued in the millions.
Committee members asked whether MTAP funds are capital dollars; Farnham clarified they are not capital construction funds but planning and administrative supports that enable towns to access larger federal programs (ARPA, BIL, Inflation Reduction Act, FEMA hazard mitigation) and to assemble matching funds when needed. He said the program helped towns respond to the July 2024 floods and that without continued MTAP support, roughly $1.5 million worth of identified projects are likely to stall.
Farnham said the program’s outreach targeted towns scoring high on the Vermont Community Index — a combined measure of vulnerability and capacity — and that MTAP work covered about one-quarter to one-half of towns depending on index thresholds, producing roughly 46 funded project statements of work.
Committee members requested an updated balance and invoice schedule for the original MTAP appropriation; Farnham said staff would provide current accounting and the spreadsheet of funded and unfunded projects.
The committee did not take a formal vote on the MTAP request during the session; staff said the item would be considered as part of the FY 2026 budget process.
