Yes. I’d republish it as one article and identify it clearly as an updated Part III. I also corrected the homelessness section so the $700+ million housing-production figure and the homelessness-spending figure are not simply added together, because the programs and accounting categories can overlap.
Part III — Updated: Follow the Laws, Taxes and Public Money
Updated September 29, 2026
Parts I and II followed the housing stories Vermonters were being told and then went underneath the projections, statistics, organizations and money supporting those stories. Part III turns the investigation toward what Vermont government itself has done through public spending, taxation, property assessment, classification and land-use law.
Vermont has invested hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars in housing, spent hundreds of millions more responding to homelessness, created new taxes tied to short-term rentals and certain second-home purchases, changed how frequently property is reassessed, developed a framework for new property classifications and substantially rewritten portions of the land-use system. These policies were enacted at different times and for different stated purposes, but each reaches some part of the same underlying issue: who can obtain, build, rent, use and afford property in Vermont.
More Than $700 Million Went Into Housing Creation
Vermont’s 2026 Housing Targets Report says that more than $700 million in state and federal funds was invested in housing-unit creation between fiscal years 2021 and 2026. The State’s developing Housing Development Dashboard reported 2,092 new housing units in 2022, 2,171 in 2023, 3,057 in 2024 and 1,598 in 2025, while explicitly cautioning that the figures were still being refined and should not yet be considered official or final. Vermont Legislature
The same report says Vermont is averaging approximately 2,300 new units annually while reaching the State’s 2030 targets would require approximately 5,600 to 8,200 units per year. DHCD also reported that Vermont currently lacks a single definitive data source capable of tracking every new housing unit built statewide. Vermont Legislature
The $700 million cannot simply be divided by the number of units in the dashboard and presented as the cost of constructing a house. Public housing expenditures include development, rehabilitation, infrastructure, financing and other activities that do not correspond one-for-one with a newly built housing unit.
The public record does establish the scale of Vermont’s investment. The next layer is identifying where the money went, what type of housing it produced or preserved, which organizations received it, how much was grant funding versus financing, and how those expenditures compare with the housing outcomes recorded during the same period.
Housing Spending Is Only Part of the Housing-Crisis Bill
Housing construction is not the only major public expenditure associated with Vermont’s housing problem. The State has also directed substantial state and federal resources toward emergency shelters, motel and hotel rooms, rental assistance, homelessness prevention, rapid rehousing, supportive housing, case management and services for people who have already lost housing.
In 2022, Vermont State Auditor Doug Hoffer attempted to calculate the State’s total financial commitment to addressing homelessness. His office reported approximately $33.5 million in FY2017, $35.4 million in FY2018, $36.2 million in FY2019, $50.6 million in FY2020, $153.4 million in FY2021 and $146.6 million in FY2022, for a six-year total of approximately $455.8 million. The report cautioned that FY2022 was still underway when the data were assembled and could therefore be incomplete. Vermont State Auditor
The three fiscal years beginning with FY2020 account for approximately $350.6 million of that six-year total. The Auditor also reported that $128 million in public funds during the FY2017-FY2022 period was invested in developing or rehabilitating 991 housing units for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, showing why housing-production and homelessness-response totals can overlap and should not simply be added together. Vermont State Auditor
Hoffer returned to the issue in August 2025 and wrote that Vermont’s spending to address homelessness over the preceding nine years “easily exceeds $800 million.” He also reported that Vermont had spent more than $33 million on hotel and motel stays for people experiencing homelessness during the previous 12 months. Vermont Business Magazine
Using the Auditor’s earlier FY2017-FY2019 figures, which total approximately $105.1 million, VT4VT calculates that Hoffer’s later nine-year figure implies more than roughly $695 million in homelessness-related spending from FY2020 forward within that nine-year period. That is a VT4VT calculation based on the Auditor’s published figures, not a separate State accounting total.
The Spending Continued
The spending continued after the period covered by Hoffer’s original report. Vermont’s Office of Economic Opportunity reported approximately $36.3 million in state and federal Housing Opportunity Grant Program awards in SFY2026 to 40 nonprofit organizations across Vermont. Those grants support emergency shelters, homelessness prevention, rapid rehousing, rental assistance, coordinated entry, housing navigation, landlord liaison work and other services. Vermont Outside
For FY2027, the Joint Fiscal Office described an $82.63 million homelessness and housing initiative covering General Assistance emergency housing, shelter funding, permanent supportive housing, rental assistance, outreach, case management and related programs. The funding package included base General Fund, one-time General Fund, federal and Global Commitment money. Vermont Secretary of State
Act 144, the FY2027 appropriations law, includes $21.18 million in one-time General Fund money for implementation of the Vermont Homelessness Response Continuum, including $14.12 million for emergency hotel and motel housing, $3 million for shelter development, $1.5 million for emergency cold-weather shelters, $500,000 for municipal grants and approximately $2.06 million for staffing, grants and contracts. Those appropriations sit alongside ongoing base spending elsewhere in the budget. Vermont Legislature
These figures should not be combined into a single billion-dollar-plus number without reconciling the underlying accounts. Some expenditures overlap, some figures are appropriations rather than actual expenditures, some include federal money, and some housing-production programs serve people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
They belong in the same investigation for a different reason. Vermont’s housing response includes both creating and preserving housing and paying for the consequences when households do not have housing.
What Happened While the Spending Increased?
The State Auditor’s 2025 review also compared spending with Vermont’s Point-in-Time homelessness count. Hoffer reported that the count generally hovered between approximately 1,000 and 1,300 people before the pandemic, increased to 3,295 in 2023, and reached 3,458 in 2024. Vermont Business Magazine
Those numbers do not establish that spending caused homelessness, nor do they establish that the programs funded were ineffective. Homelessness is influenced by housing supply, rents, income, health, family circumstances and many other factors, and the Auditor specifically identified gaps in the data needed to determine which interventions were working and why some households returned to homelessness after obtaining housing. Vermont Business Magazine
That leaves Vermont with a measurable public-record assignment. Spending should be tracked by fiscal year, funding source and program alongside the number of people served, shelter capacity, permanent placements, returns to homelessness and other outcomes the programs were created to change.
Vermont Was Also Creating New Revenue
While Vermont was spending public money on housing and homelessness, lawmakers also created new revenue streams tied to existing residential property.
Act 183 created a 3 percent Short-Term Rental Impact Surcharge on qualifying short-term rentals. The Joint Fiscal Office estimated that the surcharge would generate approximately $11.8 million for the Education Fund in FY2025 and $14.7 million annually beginning in FY2026, and the fiscal analysis states that the entire surcharge would go to the Education Fund. Vermont Legislature
The surcharge therefore was not created as a dedicated account for constructing housing, helping municipalities with large numbers of short-term rentals or mitigating specific local STR impacts. Its revenue became an additional source of money for Vermont’s statewide Education Fund.
What Was Estimated, and What Was Actually Collected?
The $11.8 million and $14.7 million figures were projections made before the State had actual experience collecting the new tax. The final collection record should therefore be compared with the original estimate rather than treating the estimate as revenue already received.
Vermont’s published Meals and Rooms statistics do not provide a clean statewide surcharge-only collection total. The Department of Taxes explains that its published statistical reports show taxable sales receipts rather than tax-revenue dollars, and the FY2026 preliminary report now covers July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Vermont Tax
JFO’s Education Fund reporting does show the broader Meals and Rooms revenue line, but that line combines the ordinary Education Fund share of Meals and Rooms revenue with the new surcharge rather than identifying the surcharge as a separate final collection total. The January 2026 forecast listed preliminary FY2025 Education Fund Meals and Rooms revenue at $71.6 million compared with $61.5 million in FY2024, but the entire increase cannot be attributed to the STR surcharge. Vermont Secretary of State
VT4VT is in the process of requesting the FY2025 and FY2026 statewide collection totals for the Short-Term Rental Impact Surcharge and the corresponding Education Fund accounting. When those records are available, we will compare the actual collections with the amounts lawmakers projected when the surcharge was enacted and publish the results.
Second Homes Were Taxed Differently Too
Act 181 changed Vermont’s Property Transfer Tax and established a 3.4 percent tax rate on qualifying residential property fit for year-round habitation that will not be the purchaser’s principal residence and is not treated as a long-term rental under the landlord-certificate requirement. The Vermont Department of Taxes now describes this as the non-principal-residence rate. Vermont Tax
JFO estimated that Act 181’s Property Transfer Tax changes, including the higher second-home rate and changes to exemptions, would generate approximately $15.7 million in additional FY2025 revenue and $18.4 million annually beginning in FY2026. The FY2025 estimate included approximately $8.29 million for the General Fund, approximately $6.1 million for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Fund and approximately $1.28 million for the Municipal and Regional Planning Fund. Vermont Secretary of State
The Department of Taxes subsequently reported total net Property Transfer Tax revenue of $62,396,103 in FY2024 and $76,643,017 in FY2025. That is an increase of approximately $14.25 million, or 22.8 percent, during the first fiscal year in which the Act 181 changes took effect. Vermont Legislature
That $14.25 million increase cannot be labeled entirely as second-home-tax revenue because transaction volume, sale prices, exemptions and the other Act 181 changes also affect statewide Property Transfer Tax collections. The records do show that statewide PTT revenue increased substantially after the new rates took effect and provide another revenue stream VT4VT can track against the Legislature’s original projections.
The Two Taxes Went to Different Places
The STR surcharge and the second-home Property Transfer Tax are often discussed within the same housing debate, but their revenues do not follow the same path. The STR surcharge goes to the Education Fund, while Act 181 changed the allocation of Property Transfer Tax revenue among the General Fund, housing and conservation, regional planning and other legislatively authorized programs. Vermont Legislature
The public record can therefore be followed from legislation through fiscal estimate, collection and expenditure. VT4VT will continue separating those stages instead of treating a projected tax yield, an actual tax receipt and a later appropriation as though they were the same number.
Act 73 Created a New Property-Classification Framework
Vermont then moved toward separating property that had historically fallen under the broad non-homestead category.
Act 73 required work on new classifications that include homestead, non-homestead residential and non-homestead nonresidential property. The Department of Taxes’ implementation report also modeled potential tax multipliers and estimated that non-homestead residential property could represent roughly 30 to 40 percent of the existing non-homestead Grand List, while cautioning that Vermont did not yet have complete data capable of making that identification parcel by parcel. Vermont Legislature
The classification framework has continued to change through subsequent legislation, including Act 170 in 2026. It should not be presented as though Vermont currently has a completed three-rate system applying a final second-home multiplier to every property. Vermont Tax
Can Vermont Reliably Identify a Camp?
The Department of Taxes asked Vermont listers and assessors whether they could accurately distinguish property fit for year-round habitation from seasonal camps. Of 96 responses, 60 said yes and 36 said no, or 62.5 percent versus 37.5 percent. Vermont Legislature
A family camp without year-round water, heat or septic capacity is therefore not automatically the same thing as a conventional second home merely because neither property is the owner’s Vermont homestead. Vermont’s own implementation work recognizes the need to distinguish those properties before different tax treatment can be applied reliably.
Then Comes Reappraisal
At the same time Vermont has been developing new property classifications, municipalities are moving through a new recurring reappraisal system.
Act 68 of 2023 requires municipalities to conduct full reappraisals at least every six years beginning in January 2025 unless the Director of Property Valuation and Review approves a longer period. Act 170 subsequently revised the regional assessment structure, but the Department of Taxes says the six-year reappraisal requirement remains in place. Vermont Tax
That means assessment and classification are developing at the same time. Property values are being brought closer to current market conditions while Vermont continues deciding how different types of property should be categorized within the education-property-tax system.
New Haven Showed How Large the Assessment Changes Can Be
New Haven became VT4VT’s first complete public-record case study. VT4VT’s analysis found the town’s homestead Grand List increased from approximately $208 million in 2024 to nearly $475 million in 2026, an increase of roughly 128 percent. VT4VT
The town’s 2026 reappraisal records show substantial increases across hundreds of individual parcels, but a reassessment percentage is not a tax-bill percentage. The new assessment must be followed through the applicable municipal and education tax rates before the resulting tax burden can be measured. newhavenvt.com
That became the methodology for the broader VT4VT Grand List project: previous assessment, new assessment, municipal rate, education rate and final tax bill.
Colchester Showed Where the Tax Dollars Moved
Colchester provided a more complete example because VT4VT obtained the town’s as-billed Grand Lists and tax rates.
Colchester’s real-property Grand List increased from approximately $2.299 billion to $4.774 billion, an increase of approximately 107.7 percent. The municipal rate fell from $0.6745 to $0.3734 per $100 of taxable value, the homestead education rate fell from $1.7384 to $1.1302, and the nonhomestead education rate fell from $1.8668 to $1.1555. VT4VT
Applying the old and new rates to the corresponding taxable Grand Lists, VT4VT calculated state education property taxes increasing from approximately $41.1 million to $50.5 million, or about $9.3 million, while municipal property taxes increased from approximately $15.4 million to $16.5 million, or about $1.1 million. Combined, the calculated property-tax generation rose from approximately $56.5 million to $67 million. VT4VT
The Colchester records also identified substantial increases in utility assessments. VT4VT calculated aggregate identified assessments for Green Mountain Power, Vermont Gas and VELCO increasing from approximately $68.59 million to $113.25 million, or about 65 percent. VT4VT
Those are assessment changes, not equivalent tax increases. The applicable rates still determine tax liability, and any eventual effect on regulated utility customers would have to be traced through subsequent rate filings rather than assumed from the assessment alone.
Act 181 Changed the Land-Use Side of the Equation
Act 181 also changed major portions of Vermont’s land-use and Act 250 framework. During implementation, the State established interim areas where qualifying housing could proceed without Act 250 review. Vermont Commerce Agency
The Agency of Commerce and Community Development publicly described the exemptions as a way to allow housing to be built faster and more affordably, and the 2026 Housing Targets Report subsequently recommended continued regulatory relief and more permissive zoning in designated growth areas. Vermont Commerce Agency
Those State statements place permitting and land-use regulation directly inside Vermont’s own housing analysis. They do not quantify how much regulation adds to the price of an individual Vermont home, but they establish that the State itself views regulation, permitting and allowable density as factors affecting housing production.
The Property-Tax Structure Goes Back to Brigham
The modern education-property-tax structure predates the recent housing and reappraisal laws.
In Brigham v. State, decided February 5, 1997, the Vermont Supreme Court held that the education-finance system’s heavy dependence on local property wealth produced unconstitutional disparities in educational opportunity. The Court expressly declined to impose a particular funding mechanism and left the remedy to the Legislature. Vermont Department of Education
The Legislature responded with Act 60. The Department of Taxes explains that Act 60 shifted education funding to the state level, established the statewide Education Fund and education-property-tax structure, and introduced the Common Level of Appraisal as a mechanism for equalizing differences among municipal Grand Lists. Vermont Tax
Nearly three decades later, Vermont is still modifying the system surrounding property valuation and education finance. Reappraisal schedules, statewide adjustments, property classifications and regional assessment structures have all continued to change.
Vermont Was Asking the Workforce Question a Decade Ago
Housing was already being identified as one part of Vermont’s workforce problem long before the current housing targets were adopted.
The 2016 Employee Relocation Tax Credit Study Committee examined barriers to attracting workers to Vermont and recommended considering incentives that could help with housing, transportation, child care, tuition reimbursement and other relocation costs. The report treated recruitment as a broader economic problem rather than a housing-only issue. Vermont Legislature
That earlier work provides useful context for the current debate. Additional housing can address a supply constraint, but households also make decisions based on employment, wages, taxes, transportation, child care, energy, health care and the wider cost of living.
Follow the Spending, Then Follow the Results
The public record now documents two very large spending streams associated with Vermont’s housing crisis. Vermont reports more than $700 million invested in housing-unit creation from FY2021 through FY2026, while the State Auditor’s records and later update indicate well over $600 million and approximately $695 million or more in homelessness-related spending from FY2020 forward within the Auditor’s nine-year accounting window. Vermont Legislature
Those figures cannot simply be added because some spending can appear in both categories. They should instead be broken apart by program, fiscal year, source of funds and measurable outcome so Vermonters can see what was spent on construction, rehabilitation, shelters, hotels, rental assistance, supportive housing, nonprofit grants and other interventions.
Vermont then layered new taxes, classifications, assessments and land-use policies onto the same housing market. The STR surcharge, second-home transfer-tax changes, Act 68 reappraisals, Act 73 classification work and Act 181 land-use changes each have their own statutory history and should be evaluated on their own records.
What Did You Do With the House?
Parts I and II followed the housing narrative back through its sources, projections and supporting organizations. Part III follows the government response through appropriations, taxes, property records and law.
The homeowner has been asked to explain the Airbnb, the family camp, the spare bedroom and the second house. Vermont has now spent hundreds of millions of dollars, created new taxes, changed assessments, developed new property classifications and rewritten parts of the land-use system surrounding those same properties.
VT4VT will keep following those records. We are building the housing-spending ledger, requesting the actual STR surcharge collections, expanding the municipal Grand List database and comparing assessments with the tax rates and final bills that determine who ultimately pays.
What did you do with the house?
Part IV will go backward from here. Vermont did not arrive at its current housing, education-finance and property-tax systems in 2026, and the next investigation will trace how earlier court decisions, legislation and policy choices created the structure the State is still modifying today.
Sources
Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development — 2026 Housing Targets Report
https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Legislative-Reports/2026_Housing_Targets_Report_FINAL.pdfVermont State Auditor — Vermont’s Commitment to End Homelessness: Spending and Homeless Totals FY17–FY22
https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/Homelessness%20Report.pdfVermont State Auditor — Investigative Reports and Memoranda
https://auditor.vermont.gov/reports/investigativeDoug Hoffer — Preventing the Return to Homelessness, August 2025
https://vermontbiz.com/news/2025/august/06/hoffer-preventing-return-homelessnessVermont DCF/OEO — SFY2026 Housing Opportunity Grant Program Awards
https://outside.vermont.gov/dept/DCF/Shared%20Documents/OEO/HOP/HOP-Awards-SFY2026.pdfJoint Fiscal Office — H.938 Vermont Homelessness Response Continuum Fiscal Note
https://ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Publications/2025-2026-House-Bills/2026-H.938-VT-Homelessness-Response-Continuum-PASSED-GA-ID-406239.pdfVermont Act 144 of 2026 — FY2027 Appropriations Act
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Docs/ACTS/ACT144/ACT144%20As%20Enacted.pdfJoint Fiscal Office — H.887 Short-Term Rental Surcharge Fiscal Note
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/Senate%20Appropriations/Bills/H.887/Drafts%2C%20Amendment%2C%20and%20Legal%20Documents/H.887~Julia%20Richter~Fiscal%20Note~5-6-2024.pdf
Vermont Department of Taxes — Meals and Rooms Tax Statistics
https://tax.vermont.gov/data-and-statistics/mrt
Vermont Department of Taxes — FY2026 Meals and Rooms Statistics, Preliminary
https://tax.vermont.gov/document/meals-and-rooms-tax-statistics-fy-2026-preliminary
Joint Fiscal Office — January 2026 Economic Review and Revenue Forecast
https://ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Subjects/Consensus-Revenue-Forecasts-Legislative-Economic-Outlook/2026-January-Economic-Review-and-Revenue-Forecast.pdf
Vermont Department of Taxes — Property Transfer Tax
https://tax.vermont.gov/property/property-transfer-tax
32 V.S.A. § 9602 — Property Transfer Tax
https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/231/09602
Joint Fiscal Office — Act 181 / H.687 Fiscal Note
https://ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Publications/2023-2024-As-Passed-the-
General-Assembly/GENERAL-375349-v14-H_687_An_act_relating_to_community_resilience_and_biodiversity_protection_through_land_use.pdf
Vermont Department of Taxes — 2026 Property Valuation and Review Annual Report
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Workgroups/House%20Government%20Operations/Reports%20and%20Resources/W~Vermont%20Department%20of%20Taxes~Property%20Valuation%20and%20Review%202026%20Annual%20Report~1-27-2026.pdf
Vermont Department of Taxes — Act 73 Property Tax Classifications Implementation Report
https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Legislative-Reports/RP-1354.pdf
Vermont Department of Taxes — Reappraisals
https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/listers-and-assessors/reappraisals
Vermont Department of Taxes — 2023 Legislative Highlights / Act 68
https://tax.vermont.gov/tax-law-and-guidance/tax-legislation/2023
Vermont Department of Taxes — 2026 Legislative Highlights / Act 170
https://tax.vermont.gov/tax-law-and-guidance/tax-legislation/2026
Town of New Haven — 2026 Reappraisal Numbers
https://www.newhavenvt.com/vertical/sites/%7B95C9AC24-F92E-457E-9A2F-56C2E251493B%7D/uploads/2026_Reapprasial_Numbers_Spreadsheet.pdf
VT4VT — Vermont Has Already Changed the Rules. What Happens to Your Property Next?
VT4VT — Colchester Reassessment: The Grand List More Than Doubled
Vermont ACCD — Act 181 Interim Regulatory Exemptions
https://accd.vermont.gov/press-releases/interim-regulatory-exemptions-place-create-more-housing-vermonters-can-afford
Vermont Supreme Court — Brigham v. State
https://education.vermont.gov/sites/aoe/files/documents/Brigham_v_vt.pdf
Vermont Department of Taxes — Education Tax Rate Calculations and CLA
https://tax.vermont.gov/property/education-property-tax-rates/faqs
Employee Relocation Tax Credit Study Committee — Final Report, 2016
https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Legislative-Reports/Employee-Relocation-Tax-Credit-Study-Committee-Final-Report.pdf
Help Build the VT4VT Record
VT4VT is collecting reassessment notices, final tax bills and municipal Grand Lists from across Vermont so we can compare survey reports with the public record and determine where the property-tax burden is actually moving. The survey remains anonymous, and individual survey responses are not matched to individual taxpayers.
Complete the Vermont Reassessment Survey:
https://survey.vt4vt.com/2026-vermont-reassessment-survey/
Submit your municipality’s Grand List or a link to the public records:
https://survey.vt4vt.com/2026-vermont-grand-list-survey/
Grand Lists, reassessment notices and related public records can also be sent to grandlist@vt4vt.org. The goal is to build the most complete independent public-record database possible for Vermont reassessments, tax rates, Grand Lists and final property-tax bills.
Property Tax Affordability Survey
How are Vermont property taxes affecting your household?
This anonymous survey focuses specifically on property taxes, reassessments, rising property values, tax bills, and whether Vermont homeowners believe their current property-tax burden is sustainable.
The results will help VT4VT compare taxpayer experiences with municipal grand lists, tax rates, reassessment data, and other public records as we continue building the FY2027 Vermont Property Tax database.
Take the survey:
https://survey.vt4vt.com/s/004-property-tax-affordabiltiy/
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