Today’s Houston Chronicle editorial showed appropriate outrage at state law-makers and regulators who earlier this year made drastic changes to the state’s fund, LITE-UP (Low Income Telephone and Electric Utility Program). Changes that effectively deny needy Texans assistance from the fund, while keeping most of the money on hand in state coffers to help balance overall budget figures.
This program, conceived by State Senator Sylvester Turner in 1999 when the state deregulated the utilities, was intended to be a means to help protect poor and senior citizens who might be hit hardest by new utility bills. The fund relies on a small fee to all households and business (on average just $1 per month). Altogether these funds feed into a pool that can assist lower income Texans with their own bills. However, now a program with its own dedicated funding is largely sitting on those resources.
As the Chronicle notes:
…so far this fiscal year, the state has collected $130 million in those electric-bill fees but released only $28 million in aid. That unspent money and its interest have been adding up: By the end of our next two-year budget cycle, the state will have nearly $1 billion sleeping in the account…
…In 2002, when the program went into effect, LITE-UP gave more than 800,000 Texans year-round help with their electric bills. These days, it gives only summer help to just 500,000 people (and on average covers a measly 10 percent of those crippling summer bills). Never mind that the need is greater than ever. The state’s population has grown, and job losses have walloped people who used to be able to handle their bills without help.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7686419.html#ixzz1UOYg22yq
In the past few months lawmakers have been making many different funding choices with general state revenues, decisions that may or may not appeal to everyone. However, when a program has dedicated funding, derived from a specific source and intended for a specific purpose, the expectation is that it should be used that way. The fact that LITE-UP funds are being used now merely as a bank account buffer, during a time of unrelenting heat and drought, is truly disturbing.