Cheyenne mayor dismayed as bill incentivizing affordable housing dies in House committee
CHEYENNE — Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins shook his head in disappointment after a committee-sponsored bill that incentivized affordable housing development in Wyoming died Friday afternoon in the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee for lack of a hearing.
Last year, Collins rallied lawmakers to draft legislation that would expand affordable housing development qualifications for tax increment financing (TIF). Cheyenne has long taken advantage of TIFs to fund development projects within its community, such as the site of the former Hitching Post Inn on West Lincolnway.
TIFs work a bit like a loan program. Developers who want to build property on blighted areas can request help from the city to pay for its infrastructure development.
Blight is a legal term that refers to areas with deteriorated structures or faulty layout and poses a risk to public health and safety.
The city pays off that investment with the increased property taxes from the new development. Once that is paid off, the city sees all further property taxes from the development as profit.
The Wyoming Urban Renewal Code provides definitions for 'blighted area,' 'urban renewal area' and 'urban renewal project.' House Bill 68, 'Tax increment financing,' sponsored by the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, would have created a new definition for 'affordable housing.'
Affordable housing projects currently only qualify for TIFs if they're built on blighted areas, Collins told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
'In a lot of places where you're gonna build housing, there isn't blight,' Collins said. HB 68 would have allowed affordable housing projects to apply for TIFs under the Wyoming Urban Renewal Code, without the blight requirement.
This bill was an important tool to incentivize more affordable housing projects, Collins said, which is needed to grow Wyoming's workforce.
'We studied this one all summer long in the interim committee,' Collins said. '(We) worked really hard to bring a bill that would give another tool to governments to provide more workforce affordable housing.'
Friday was the last day for the Wyoming Legislature to push bills out of legislative committees in their house of origin. Any bills not advanced by the committee died on the spot. Four bills were scheduled to be heard by House committee members at noon; however, lawmakers were only able to advance the first two bills before time ran out.
'I offer my apologies for not making it through to complete the four,' said committee Chairman Rep. Chris Knapp, R-Gillette. 'Many, many bills die from not getting into committee or dying on the floor … with the time frame.'
Collins said he understood there was a high volume of bills filed for consideration this legislative session. He told the WTE he planned to push for this bill again next year, but worried about the bill's likelihood to get past introduction.
Since next year is a budget session, all non-budget bills will have to pass a two-thirds majority vote in order to be considered.
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