Vermont Land Trust - Governor Proposes Drastic Cuts to Conservation: A response from VLT

Douglas Affordable Housing and Conservation Investment Cuts are Too Drastic

30% Cut is a Dramatic Shift in Priorities, Not Budget Belt-tightening

The $5.2 million recommended cut will mean losing the opportunity to build more than 120 affordable homes, and save more than 50 farms and many local community conservation projects.

Montpelier, VT --- By proposing more than $5 million in cuts to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB), Governor Douglas has sent a loud and clear message –he believes in a radical shift away from Vermont’s investment in permanently affordable homes, saving forever working farms and forests, increasing public access to natural areas and waters, and revitalizing our community spaces. A modest increase or level funding in tight fiscal times wouldn’t be surprising, but the 30 percent cut proposed by Governor Douglas is a drastic priority shift that will greatly impact Vermont’s communities.

Housing and Conservation Fuel Vermont’s Economy
The conservation of working farm and forestland, open space, recreational lands, natural areas, and affordable housing stimulates Vermont’s agriculture, forestry and tourism economy.
Vermont's policy of sustained investment in building permanently affordable housing and saving the working lands that support our economy has consistently proven its value. The abrupt decision to abandon this common sense approach to preserving a Vermont we all can afford and want to live in runs counter to many officially declared public community priorities, including:

Farm and forest economy growth
Permanently affordable family and workforce housing development
Tourism and recreation economic protection
Long-term budget cost containment
Clean water and protection of vital natural resources
Creating and sustaining viable, relevant downtowns and village centers
Encouraging young Vermonters to remain in, or return to Vermont
Promoting economic development by ensuring affordable housing for employees
Creating innovative solutions to housing for those with special needs, many of which stretch the limited resources of the Agency of Human Services
Reducing the impact and helping natural resources adapt to climate change

Conservation is Key to Good Energy Policy:
A major recommendation of the Governor’s Climate Change Report released only a few months ago wisely observed that:

“central to curbing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions is the conservation of Vermont’s significant existing “Green Bank” – our working landscape, our abundant forests, our maintenance of open land. Indeed, Vermont’s most precious and effective mechanism for countering climate change is our forested landscape.”

The Commission’s top recommendation urges the Governor to “protect working farms and forests by pursuing strategies to reduce the rate at which existing crop, pasture and forest lands are converted to developed uses.”

VHCB investments are the cornerstone of the permanent conservation of Vermont’s working lands and natural areas. Farmers, forestland owners and communities continue to manage their land privately but sell their development rights and commit to long term stewardship of our state’s most valuable natural and economic resources.

Land Conservation is Very Popular and Strongly Supported All Across Vermont
An overwhelming majority of Vermonters cite the state’s natural environment and rural characteristics as the top reason for making it a unique place to live, according to a survey conducted by the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies for the Vermont Land Trust.

Overall, land conservation and affordable housing ranked in the top three along with public education among the factors respondents cited as very important to extremely important to their communities.

Approximately 80 percent said that an end to land conservation would have a negative impact on Vermont’s working farms, forests, tourism and recreational areas.
87 percent of respondents said that Vermont’s natural/wildlife areas would be susceptible to somewhat or very negative impacts without land conservation.

Thousands of Affordable Housing Units Are Needed
According to a Housing Needs Assessment conducted by the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Vermont has a “shortage of approximately 21,000 units of affordable rental housing.” According to the State’s Consolidated Plan: “the most important objective for housing in this Action Plan is to increase the supply of affordable and workforce housing.” The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board has been the only source of direct state funding to help meet this overwhelming need. By funding the efforts of non-profit affordable housing developers across the state, VHCB has cost-effectively driven the development of 8,500 homes and apartments- homes that stay affordable to Vermonters forever.

We Can’t Put off this Investment, the Cost of Waiting is Too High
Significant changes in VHCB’s budget will mean lost opportunities to attract federal farmland protection dollars, which also support the Governor’s Clean and Clear initiative. Many farm projects in the pipeline have been appraised or are in the midst of contract discussions and an appraisal process – and in most cases farmers share in the cost of the appraisal. If funding is delayed, some of these farmers will need to start the appraisal process over again given NRCS rules that require appraisals to be current. Similarly, there are hundreds of affordable housing units in the pipeline. This development leverages a lot of private funding and provides many jobs for Vermonters.

We all agree that we need thousands of permanently affordable homes. We also all understand that what's here today, could be gone tomorrow. Lots of our communities’ working farms, natural areas, community places and historic spaces could be lost forever in the coming decades.

The VHCB statistics are staggering. In the past 20 years, VHCB investments in our communities have created more than 8,500 permanently affordable homes and apartments and conserved more than 500 farms and 250,000 acres of forests and natural areas. For two decades, this has all made sense because affordable housing and conservation have strengthened our communities, conserved our world-class landscapes and in turn advanced our economic vitality. Now, many understand that VHCB investments also help us to reduce climate change.

Governor Douglas’s budget address has left many wondering why would the state of Vermont make a radical shift away from one of its greatest success stories?