Hey there, members — You'll notice that I am not debuting a splashy new email intro this week, despite Richard's wishes, because I don't go down without a fight. And when push comes to shove, I think I can take him. He may have several inches on me, but I'm scrappy. And notably, he's an old man, and I'm not.

 

With much of this year's legislative business concluded for the year, AGC-VT had its eye on one major piece of policy last week: S.127, the omnibus housing bill, which is home to the project-based TIF program known as CHIP. As passed by the Senate earlier this year, CHIP would be great for contractors and developers, leveraging future property tax revenues to help pay for the indebted infrastructure (water, sewer, electrical, broadband, etc.) costs necessary to build housing units now. In recent weeks, however, the House Ways & Means Committee has added many guardrails around the proposal -- capping CHIP's future tax increment at $40 million annually, limiting where CHIP could be used geographically, and putting in place certain permanent affordability, square footage and domicile requirements that we know are hard to monitor and enforce longterm. The committee also proposed establishing a new board who would review every new project which hopes to utilize CHIP. Notably: The committee's language is not final yet, and it is lacking critical support among the entirety of the House chamber — so it could look very different by next week. Here's a great rundown from VTDigger.

 

AGC-VT supports the Senate's original vision for CHIP, or something close to it, and believes that amid a housing crisis, legislators should not be placing an arbitrary limit on how much housing we can build thanks to a critical new program. AGC-VT also believes that, even if some of these guardrails are well-intended, they ultimately complicate the project as a whole — and when programs become too complicated to navigate and manage, fewer contractors will utilize them. The point of CHIP, as it was initially envisioned, was to help close the gap in penciling out projects all over the state -- whether that be a quadplex in Marshfield, an apartment building in Brattleboro, or a neighborhood of single-family homes in Essex — knowing that different communities have different housing needs. The more guardrails put up, the further we get from that vision.

 

My ask for you all is this: I would really like to hear from you in the next week on how CHIP, or a so-called "mini TIF" program like this, would help you. What would it mean for you to get assistance from the state to cover the cost of infrastructure for a new housing development? How would a program like this help your projects pencil out? What would it mean for you as an employer to see more homes on the market where your employees could live?

 

Even better than emailing me the answers to those questions: Please email your local senator(s) and tell them what you think about CHIP. These weeks mark the final push of the legislative session, so now is the time to make your voice heard. As always, if you need help identifying your local legislators, let me know and I'll track them down.

 

Have a great week,