Vermont passes $2B infrastructure plan to support housing growth

Houses line a body of water and trees in Vermont.

The Vermont State Legislature recently passed a historic bill that could reshape small-town development across the state.

The state, which is projected to need up to 170,000 new homes by 2050 to meet market demand, has passed a bill to create the Community Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIP), which provides financial assistance for infrastructure improvements supporting new housing construction.

The initiative allows municipalities to utilize future local property tax revenue growth to fund projects and repay the costs over time.

The bill is expected to help rural towns grow, expand and help address Vermont’s pressing housing challenges, the state said.

The CHIP proposal as passed represents the most significant investment in municipal infrastructure in state history, allowing up to $200 million of tax increment financing annually over 10 years that Vermont communities can spend on improving infrastructure to support new housing.

Photo by Sahil Raut from Pexels

Miles Smith

Miles Smith has more than two decades of communications experience in the public and private sectors, including several years of covering local governments for various daily and weekly print publications. His scope of work includes handling public relations for large private-sector corporations and managing public-facing communications for local governments.

Smith has recently joined the team as a content writer for SPI’s news publications, which include Texas Government Insider, Government Contracting Pipeline and its newest digital product, Government Market News, which launched in September 2023. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s in journalism.