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State helps citizens stay warm

Government program increases grants low-income resident to pay for heat, electric costs

Due to the ailing economy, the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program has increased its number of grants given to low-income state residents by 13 percent so far this year, according to the Division of Energy Services.

WHEAP distributes both federal and state funding to help provide assistance for heating costs, electric costs and energy crisis situations for qualifying low-income households statewide. The average benefit for heating bill support is $516 per household, according to DES Administrator Sheree Dallas Branch.

Dallas Branch said the DES’s 2008 fiscal year end report stated about 87 percent of applicants qualified for help and were cumulatively paid $102,785,082.

This year has seen 132,018 state household applications, 77 percent of which have been approved with a total pay out of $78,422,619.

According to Dallas Branch, $147 million available for WHEAP should be enough to cover the grants awarded to the qualifying households.

“The numbers are pretty steady,” Dallas Branch said. “We allotted for a 7 percent increase and so we are doing fairly well. We are going to be gearing up some of our outreach efforts during this last quarter.”

Dallas Branch added the current state of the economy has been a hardship for many, citing a large increase in payments compared with modest increases in number of applications. Dallas Branch also said households which may not have qualified for heating assistance in the past may qualify now.

Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson, D-Kaukauna, said the increase in energy costs and unemployed citizens, as well as the state’s $5.4 billion budget deficit, are several of today’s many economic problems.

“The state is facing the worst economic crisis in two generations,” Nelson said. “That crisis is reflected in the skyrocketing unemployment rate, the unprecedented state budget deficit and a whole host of other economic indicators.”

Nelson added the Legislature will help those low-income households to the fullest extent allowed by the state budget deficit and they will have to wait for Gov. Jim Doyle to present his budget to see how heating assistance will be affected.

Kimber Liedl, spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, agreed that the harsher economic climate has left many residents unable to pay their bills. Liedl added though there have not been many details released about Doyle’s budget proposal, she hopes there will be additional funding for heating assistance.

“Overall, it’s going to be difficult to fund numerous programs. We’ll just have to see how the governor decides to try to balance the budget, especially with the budget deficit and the recent projections that revenue is going to be even less than anticipated this budget cycle and next,” Liedl said.

Dallas Branch added heating assistance is available during each heating season, from Oct. 1 through May 15, and is intended to help pay a portion of heating costs. For most households, the benefit is sent directly to the fuel supplier and credited to the household’s heating account.