State officials present SPARC proposal to scale down tax-increment financing for rural housing

Joan Goldstein, commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, told a joint hearing of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development and the House Committee on General & Housing that the administration is proposing a scaled-down tax-increment financing tool called SPARC (Strategic Projects for Advancing Rural Communities) to help smaller Vermont towns support housing and related infrastructure. "The title of our presentation is Strategic Projects for advancing rural communities. We've been calling this SPARC," Goldstein said, describing the proposal as a way to let municipalities transfer incremental tax revenue to a private developer under a negotiated community agreement.

The proposal would let a municipality grant some or all of the incremental property tax revenue generated by a new project to a private builder or community investment partner rather than use the increment only to pay public infrastructure bonds. "The municipality is not taking risk because they're not gonna pay anything until after the development is done and after the increment is being collected," Goldstein said, adding that the program is designed for single projects or small parcels rather than the…