VTDigger22%

Vermont expands housing investment program 47%

By Brattleboro Reformer27%

7/25/2026, 4:06:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Optimism Bias, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 17% saturation with 96 hits. Analysis detected 606 faulty-reasoning hits from 565 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.8% and a BS Rank of 47% (11,603 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 53.00% of the article peer group.

Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak chats before a groundbreaking ceremony marking the beginning of construction of 40 affordable apartments at the Cambrian Way housing complex in Burlington on Thursday, August 7, 2025. 
Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger 
Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak chats before a groundbreaking ceremony at the Cambrian Way housing complex in Burlington in August 2025. 
File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger 
This story by Chris Mays was first published in the Brattleboro Reformer on July 21, 2026. 
BERLIN  An additional $25 million is now available in low-interest financing to help spur new housing, job creation and affordability across Vermont. 
“Our state continues to be in desperate need of more housing,” Vermont Treasurer Mike Pieciak said Tuesday at a news conference. 
“Housing in Vermont is simply too expensive, whether you are a renter, whether you’re a first-time homebuyer, or whether you’re somebody that’s lived in your home for 30 years and is trying to maintain the home and trying to keep up with property taxes.” 
The financing is available through the treasurer’s Invest in Vermont program, which uses 12.5% of the state’s average daily cash balance to provide low-interest loans for housing and economic development projects without spending tax dollars. 
A request for proposals went out Tuesday. 
Proposals are due Sept. 
4. 
The program was formerly called “10% in VT.” 
The Legislature recently expanded the program’s lending capacity by 2.5 percentage points in this year’s major housing bill, S.328. 
Now, the program has been renamed Invest in Vermont. 
To date, the program has been used to invest more than $130 million into housing and other initiatives across Vermont, according to an announcement. 
“Without spending a single tax dollar, those investments have leveraged over $600 million in outside capital, supporting nearly 1,700 units of high-quality housing for Vermonters of all kinds, including working families, seniors, and those exiting homelessness,” the announcement states. 
The funding is also credited with creating nearly 200 permanent, good-paying jobs. 
When Pieciak was first elected treasurer  years ago, his office looked at what tools are available to confront the housing issue. 
He said his team knows that “there is so much more that we need to do.” 
“We went to the Legislature and asked if they would consider giving us even more authority to expand our 10% in Vermont program to 12.5%, and that is exactly what they did,” he said. 
“We want to thank the Legislature for their support and their confidence in us to invest this money wisely.” 
Pieciak said the investments allow projects to move forward at a more affordable price. 
In March, he announced The Village at Winston Prouty in Brattleboro would receive $4 million in financing through the program. 
Alex Farrell, the commissioner of housing and community development, said the governor is “extremely grateful to the treasurer and his whole team for the partnership that they have displayed, not only with Invest in Vermont and really focusing these funds on housing, but also on some of our initiatives to create more innovative ways to deliver housing.” 
“We are going to continue to push on the front to find new ways that large and small projects can have a fast track through the regulatory process,” he said, “because it’s so important that residential construction can happen in rural Vermont.” 
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont expands housing investment program . 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 2.1%Brattleboro Reformer: 2.6%VTDigger: 2.3%Confirmation Bias2.1%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.8%VTDigger: 0.9%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 4.2%Brattleboro Reformer: 2.4%VTDigger: 2.7%Availability Heuristic4.2%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.5%VTDigger: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.6%VTDigger: 0.5%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 2.8%VTDigger: 1.6%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 6.2%Brattleboro Reformer: 3.4%VTDigger: 4.7%Framing Effect6.2%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 1.0%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.7%VTDigger: 0.7%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 14.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 8.8%VTDigger: 4.4%Optimism Bias14.0%This article: 6.5%Brattleboro Reformer: 1.5%VTDigger: 2.5%Pessimism Bias6.5%This article: 7.8%Brattleboro Reformer: 1.7%VTDigger: 5.1%Negativity Bias7.8%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 5.0%VTDigger: 3.5%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.9%VTDigger: 0.6%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.0%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.9%VTDigger: 1.2%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.5%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 17.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 7.2%VTDigger: 3.0%Halo Effect17.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.0%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.4%VTDigger: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.7%VTDigger: 0.7%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.2%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.8%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 17.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 3.7%VTDigger: 2.8%Appeal to Authority17.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 1.6%VTDigger: 2.1%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 1.0%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 6.2%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.5%VTDigger: 0.2%Circular Reasoning6.2%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 3.3%VTDigger: 4.1%Hasty Generalization0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.3%VTDigger: 0.1%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 1.2%VTDigger: 0.3%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 3.7%Brattleboro Reformer: 3.9%VTDigger: 5.0%Appeal to Emotion3.7%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.7%VTDigger: 0.7%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 8.7%Brattleboro Reformer: 3.8%VTDigger: 2.5%Post Hoc (False Cause)8.7%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.0%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.2%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.3%VTDigger: 0.3%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 2.0%VTDigger: 2.8%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.2%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 6.9%Brattleboro Reformer: 1.0%VTDigger: 1.1%Ambiguity (Equivocation)6.9%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.3%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 6.9%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.9%VTDigger: 0.9%Unattributed Quote6.9%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.3%VTDigger: 0.7%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.7%VTDigger: 2.4%Biased Writer Voice0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.7%VTDigger: 1.5%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.4%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 0.0%VTDigger: 0.0%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brattleboro Reformer: 1.0%VTDigger: 0.7%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

565 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers44%attributed speech318writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 5 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 32 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 4 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 21 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 5 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 16 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 0.0% coverageMike Pieciak • 21 words • 0.0% coverageMike Pieciak • 44 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 35 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 7 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 4 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 1 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 8 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 9 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 24 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 39 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 0.0% coverageMike Pieciak • 16 words • 0.0% coverageMike Pieciak • 34 words • 0.0% coverageMike Pieciak • 19 words • 0.0% coverageMike Pieciak • 14 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageAlex Farrell • 57 words • 0.0% coverageAlex Farrell • 42 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Alex Farrell

100%flagged-word coverage
99 attributed words40% of attributed speech42% writer coverage
0%7.5%15.0%Unattributed Quote-12.3 ptsWriter: 12.3%Alex Farrell: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.