Rep. Lansee explains "Grandstanding" charge re Gov Doyle Special session---.

Lasee’s Notes
February 14, 2006
Heating Homes
The Governor needed an issue – something that would catch the public’s imagination,
and end the tough couple months he’s been having.
He picked one – home heating assistance. Keeping people warm in the winter is a
noble cause, and Governor Doyle is a little late to the party.
Wisconsin already has a program to help lower income people pay for home heating, if
they need it. It’s partly federal funded, partly state funded through the Public Benefits
Fee – an extra charge (a fee, not a tax) you’ll find on your electricity bill every month.
This year, we’ll spend about $70 million on home heating assistance. Last year, we
spent $54 million (a nearly 30% increase), meaning each eligible family is already
receiving more assistance.
And we’ve already tried to increase it further: a bill authored by Rep. Honadel and Sen.
Cowles (both Republicans) will increase the program to $80 million – a nearly 50%
increase over last year – if it is ever signed into law.
Many states don’t spend anything other than federal money on home heating
assistance. In Wisconsin, we can never do enough.
That bill passed the Assembly in December (oddly, over the no votes of most
Democrats), and now awaits action in the Senate. Perhaps Governor Doyle could urge
action on that, instead of re-inventing the wheel.
Governor Doyle’s plan is to spend $6 million (instead of $10 million) from the PECFA
fund – the fund used to clean up petroleum-contaminated land – instead of alreadyexisting
heating assistance funds.
Plus, he wants to increase the eligibility levels. Currently, only those at or below 150%
of the federal poverty level – about $30,000 for a family of four – are eligible. He would
raise this to 206%. Families earning up to $41,200 will be eligible.
Six million dollars isn’t enough to cover all those new applicants, meaning that his plan
will take heating assistance away from the poor, and give it to the middle class. All part
of his “affordability agenda.” We’ll take more from you, so you’ll feel better about paying
taxes and taking what the ` Wisconsin government gives you.
And he wants all this right now. This week. Governor Doyle demanded that the
Legislature hold a special session this week to authorize that money.
He could have demanded it last week, when we were already meeting. He could
demand it next week, when we’re scheduled to meet again.
As a matter of fact, he could have demanded it six months ago, after Hurricane Katrina
woke us all to the reality of rising gas and fuel prices. That was in August – we’ve
known ever since then (if not before) that heating our homes was going to cost more
this winter. Higher energy costs aren’t a new phenomenon – except, it seems, in the
Governor’s office.
In both of his budgets, Governor Doyle has robbed the Public Benefits Fund to support
other spending. In the 2005-07 budget, he took (and, to be fair, the Republican
legislature approved) over $35 million out of the $130 million fund, and transferred it to
the General Fund.
If we needed more money for home heating assistance, we could simply have used the
Public Benefits Fund, instead of sending it to the General Fund, and now looking for
another source to rob to make up for our lack of foresight.
In the end, this is simply another attempt at grandstanding – just another meaningless
attempt to look good.
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