Regional planning commissions urge protection of core funding after property transfer tax dip

Trevor Baker, executive director of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, and Catherine Dimitric, executive director of the Northwest Regional Planning Commission, told the Vermont House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development on Feb. 18 that core state funding for regional planning commissions (RPCs) is vital to local planning, emergency readiness and leveraging federal grants.

Baker said Vermont has 11 RPCs with about 135 staff statewide and that RPCs have no taxing authority: roughly 95% of their revenue comes from state and federal grants and about 5% from municipal dues. He described the regional planning grant program — the RPCs’ primary core funding — as funded through a statutorily set portion of the property transfer tax and said that in the current fiscal year there had been an approved budget of “7.74” (unit not specified in the transcript). He told the committee the House’s budget adjustment act (BAA) applied a 1.3 cut to property‑transfer‑tax driven programs and that the governor had recommended “7.83858” (unit not specified), a 2.6% increase. RPC leaders asked legislators to support roughly a 3% uplift to match agency guidance for routine cost increases such as health care.

“Because of that, we really do serve as this…