Vermont budget would seed $1 million pilot to reimburse towns for flood buyouts

Douglas Farnham, chief recovery officer for the state of Vermont, told the Ways & Means Committee on Feb. 5 that the governor’s recommended budget includes a municipal buyout reimbursement pilot that would establish $1,000,000 in spending authority to reimburse towns that agree to permanently conserve properties after flood damage. “On page 26 of the GovRec budget, there's an explanation for a municipal buyout reimbursement program that that we're proposing this year,” Farnham said.

Farnham said the program is intended for cases where a property is permanently conserved and therefore removed from the tax rolls, typically when a municipality (or in rare cases the state) takes ownership to keep residents out of harm’s way. “The idea behind this program is when a program becomes permanently conserved, it it comes off of the tax rolls essentially, has to become municipal property,” Farnham said. Under the proposal, after a buyout closes the municipality would receive tax payments based on the pre-disaster value for five years, then 50% of the pre-disaster value for another five years.

The nut of the proposal, Farnham said, is to give affected towns time to rebuild their grand lists and municipal budgets while encouraging more municipalities to approve buyouts. He said roughly half of municipal buyouts are currently approved by towns and that…