New Massachusetts Budget Fails to Include Funds for CAPs to Verify Client Eligibility for Low-Income Utility Discounts
For a while the FY 1999 state budget process looked promising for a key MASSCAP issue, but in the end, it resulted in disappointment. While the resources for low-income utility discount eligibility verification to be conducted by Massachusetts community action agencies' fuel/weatherization assistance network were included in the Senate version of the FY 1999 state budget, (through an amendment offered by Senators Rosenberg and Panagiotakos), they were not included in the final budget that Governor Cellucci signed during the summer. Because the Senate and the House versions of the budget differed on the issue, the matter had to be resolved by a Senate-House conference committee. The issue was among the last that the conference committee settled.
MASSCAP has learned that the primary objections to the language in the line-item came from the Governor's office and perhaps were prompted by the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). The $500,000 mandated in the Senate budget version to allow Massachusetts community action programs to verify the eligibility of low-income families was taken from a DTA budget line-item after a few Senators objected to asking for new money or requiring the utility companies to pay for the eligibility verification. The earmarking budget language had been developed on the floor of the Senate during budget debate after MASSCAP initially proposed (through a motion by Senator Panagiotakos) new state resources to pay for it.
While the budget conference committee is made up of members from the House and Senate, it is not unusual for representatives from the Governor's Office to sit in during the meetings and to offer their feedback on certain items. In an effort to avoid future conflict, the conferees sometimes elect to settle differences between the Executive and Legislative branches during the conference process and thereby avoid a veto or veto override situation. This is apparently what happened to the amendment MASSCAP had supported and others.
Due to the public outreach the state has conducted related to who qualifies for the low-income utility discount (the state Department of Energy Resources has placed ads and pullouts in the Boston Globe indicating that any family earning below 175 percent of poverty is eligible), many families earning between 150 and 175 percent of the poverty level will be seeking eligibility verification from community action programs. MASSCAP still hopes to secure the resources that CAPs need to provide this service.
At this stage, MASSCAP cannot restore the amendment it supported to the FY 1999 budget document that the Governor signed--that document cannot be changed. However, the legislature usually passes other smaller spending bills during the year, often to cover unanticipated state expenses, and MASSCAP will seek to add the necessary funding in such legislation if and when it comes up for consideration.
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