Winter's gone; heat bills aren't;
Iowa should have a fund to help pay utility bills for low-income households

Des Moines Register (Des Moines, IA)
May 12, 2003

It's too bad everyone doesn't have to take a call from an elderly woman panicked about whether she'll have to give up her home because she's so far behind on her heating bill. Then they would understand why Jerry McKim, chief of Iowa's Bureau of Energy Assistance, wants to find more help for the state's poorest residents. And why Senator Chuck Grassley's request on Friday to continue funding for the federal program that provides such assistance is good but not nearly enough.

A record 24,026 Iowa households that receive the federal assistance had past-due accounts in March with Iowa's rate-regulated utilities.

That's a higher number than in the harsh winter of 2000-01.

Together they owed nearly $8 million, according to a report on March accounts by the Iowa Utilities Board.

Why is that, since they get assistance? Because the average heating benefit per household this past winter through the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program was just $330.

Elderly and disabled people and families with young children are the main recipients. Altogether, about 79,000 Iowa households participate.

Grassley sent a letter to Senator Arlen Specter, who chairs the subcommittee that distributes funding for LIHEAP, asking for not less than $2 billion for the program for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. That sends the message that he expects the program to be maintained at about the present level, but the amount still falls short.

Only about a third of eligible Iowans are enrolled.

People give up food and medicine or medical care when they can't afford to pay the heating bill. A survey McKim conducted a couple of years ago also found that they go to bed early with lots of blankets and skimp on rent or house payments.

Some other states augment federal assistance for heating bills with their own appropriations, but not Iowa. The state did help with $6.5 million on a onetime basis in 2001, and is phasing out the sales tax on energy bills. Money also is raised for low-income residents with voluntary contributions, but the amount is down.

The Governor's Energy Policy Task Force in October 2001 called for a Public Benefit Fund. The goal: reduce total energy burdens for low-income Iowans to a reasonable level, possibly through a fee assessed to all utility customers.

Aside from recognizing that staying warm in the winter should not mean sacrificing other basic necessities, a Public Benefit Fund makes sense for another reason:

The heating bills that never get paid end up being covered by customers anyway, with higher rates down the road.

A Public Benefit Fund would acknowledge that up-front, and make getting by less of a struggle for poor Iowans.