(Montpelier, Vt.) — The Vermont House of Representatives passed by strong majority and the Vermont Senate passed unanimously on Friday bill S.127, an act relating to housing and housing development, which included the Community Housing and Infrastructure Program (CHIP). The CHIP proposal as passed represents the most significant investment in municipal infrastructure in state history, allowing up to $200 million per year of tax increment financing to be spent by Vermont communities on infrastructure that will serve a public good and support the development of new housing.
VLCT fought hard throughout the session to ensure that CHIP will enable all types of new housing to be built, for low- and moderate-income families, and across both rural and urban areas of all Vermont counties.
As VLCT's Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Josh Hanford put it, “Our members have called CHIP a gamechanger. Vermont’s existing Tax Increment Financing program is great – and CHIP is better – because it will allow every community in the state to build the types of housing they need and have envisioned. The legislature has just passed what amounts to the greatest investments in housing in state history, and they put it in the control of local government to decide.”