House Appropriations hears ACCD FY26 budget requests focused on housing, infrastructure and business recruitment

Montpelier — The Vermont House Appropriations Committee heard Feb. 19 from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development on its proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, which officials said aims to sustain tourism marketing, expand housing programs, support municipal infrastructure tied to housing development and make international business recruitment a permanent activity.

"ACCD consists of 3 departments, all actively engaged in generating revenue for the state's general fund," Secretary Lindsay Curley told the committee as she outlined the agency's request. ACCD presented a $105,000,000 total package that the agency said is composed of $63.4 million in base funding, $6.8 million in new base initiatives and $41.65 million in one-time requests.

Why it matters: The request centers on housing and related infrastructure as the agency seeks both predictable, ongoing funding for programs it has run on one-time money and discrete capital to spur production. ACCD officials tied the proposals to preserving affordable housing, supporting mobile-home communities and reducing infrastructure barriers that keep projects from moving forward.

Most prominent budget items

- Base initiatives: ACCD asked for $6.8 million in new base funding, including $4.3 million for the Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP), $2.15 million for a Manufactured Home Improvement and Repair program, and $350,000 to make the agency's international business development work permanent.

- One-time requests: The agency requested roughly $41.65 million in one-time funds, led by $15 million for a rental revolving loan fund administered by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA), $15 million for a middle-income homeownership development program at VHFA, $9.1 million for an infrastructure sustainability fund to support municipal water/wastewater and access projects tied to housing, and $2 million for a Brownfields Revitalization Fund.

Tourism and marketing

Heather Pelham, commissioner of the Department of Tourism and Marketing, told the committee the department is not seeking a new general-fund appropriation this year because it is drawing down federal recovery funds. Pelham said the agency welcomed "15,800,000 visitors in 2023 who spent $4,000,000,000 in direct spending," and that the department used federal money to produce new marketing assets and market research, including an economic-impact study of the 2024 eclipse that Pelham said was "right around $50,000,000." She also said the federal tranche that has supported much of the department’s recent activity is reimbursement-based and will expire when the grant period ends.

Economic development and trade

Joan Blatzkein, introduced to the committee as commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, summarized ARPA-funded work and asked the committee to approve a $350,000 base increase to expand foreign direct investment recruitment beyond Canada. "We granted 155 grants out to communities, industries, nonprofit organizations to do capital investment projects," she said, and described a $2,000,000 one-time Brownfields Revitalization Fund request that agency leaders said has historically leveraged private redevelopment dollars (agency materials cited roughly $380 million leveraged to date).

Housing and community development

Alex Farrell, commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, framed the department's requests around predictable program funding and staff capacity. "We just cleared the thousand unit threshold. We funded over a thousand units of BHIP," Farrell told the committee, referring to the Vermont Housing Improvement Program (BHIP), and explained the request to move BHIP from one-time to base funding ($4.3 million) to avoid recurring cycles of opening and closing applications.

Farrell described BHIP's structure as a mix of grants and forgivable loans tied to affordability covenants of differing lengths (five- and ten-year options). He said the department is seeking $300,000 to convert two limited-service housing positions to permanent roles to manage compliance and data collection for VHIP and related programs.

Farrell also described the Manufactured Home Improvement and Repair program, which targets repairs and infrastructure in manufactured-home parks to keep households housed, and noted the department’s one-time asks including the $9.1 million infrastructure sustainability fund, which the department proposes be administered by the Vermont Bond Bank and used to extend or add utilities, access roads or other infrastructure that directly ties to housing production.

Officials flagged execution risks tied to federal funding streams that support brownfields and community development activities; ACCD witnesses said some federal grants are being spent down and in one instance noted concerns about EPA-funded brownfields grants.

Committee questions and next steps

Representatives asked how relocation and retention programs are tracked, how long new residents stay, and which income bands the housing programs serve. Tourism officials said their relocation "Grow" grant tracked touchpoints and had documented 52 families moving through the program's first full year, with an average time from contact to move of about three to four months. Housing officials said BHIP thus far has mostly served people exiting homelessness but that the move to base funding would allow the program to be more predictable and potentially reach additional households.

The committee did not vote on the proposals at the Feb. 19 hearing; ACCD staff said they would return to answer follow-up questions and the committee expected additional testimony later in the session.