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Senate committee opts to defer CHIP statutory changes after auditors and lenders flag risks
Summary
Lawmakers heard testimony from housing consultants, the PEPSI board, the state auditor and JFO staff that proposed statutory changes to the Community Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIP) could weaken guardrails, complicate financing, and reduce funds returned to the education fund; the committee conducted a nonbinding straw poll on whether to include the amendments in H.775 but did not record a formal vote in the transcript.
At a Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs committee meeting, lawmakers discussed proposed statutory amendments to the Community Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIP) and heard sharply divergent testimony from developers, PEPSI board members, the state auditor and the Joint Fiscal Office.
David White, a consultant with White and Burke Real Estate Advisors, told the panel he sent a draft ("CHIP proposal draft 1.1, dated 04/30/26") that would clarify whether infrastructure that supports CHIP-funded housing can be privately owned. "There has been ambiguity around what infrastructure can be privately owned versus publicly owned," White said, arguing the statute should treat the housing itself as the public good and allow either public or private ownership of infrastructure so long as it serves that housing.
White also sought to expand the statute’s definition of "related costs" to allow reimbursement for expenses…
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