AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine State Housing Authority Director Dale McCormick, Efficiency Maine Executive Director Michael Stoddard and Gov. Paul LePage’s staff met into the evening Tuesday but emerged from the meeting saying they are still “a few days” away from providing the governor with a plan for additional heating assistance this winter.
“We made good progress but we are not ready with a report,” said Energy Office Director Ken Fletcher. “Our goal is to keep people warm and that is what we are putting together for a plan.”
He said the effort will be a multipronged effort to stretch the available Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds from the federal government. With the latest congressional action, Maine will have $38.5 million, below last year’s level of $54 million.
“We are looking at ways to make that go just as far as we can,” Fletcher said, “this is not just about more dollars for oil.”
But last week LePage was clear in an interview that he expected the agencies to come up with assistance to supplement the federal funds and to have a plan to him by Tuesday’s meeting. He said his office has been working with the agencies for several weeks and that it is time to act.
“Winter is now, we have to solve the problem now,” he said. “There are readily available funds in their organizations that can help us with this problem.”
Fletcher insisted keeping some low-income Mainers from having to buy oil or another fuel through immediate weatherization efforts is as good as providing them dollars to buy additional fuel. He said weatherization also would have long-term benefits for the families involved.
“We are directing $5 million be targeted to homes that heat with electricity, targeting the ones that have the highest level of use first,” Stoddard said. “We think we can get to about 700 homes with that.”
He said those homes would be weatherized this winter to reduce immediately the heating bills for those families. He said the agency also is seeking federal approval to shift a million dollars from a grant to buy alternative heating systems such as pellet stoves.
“We believe we can get these homes done this winter,” he said.
Stoddard said another initiative is under way to reduce consumption of electricity by distributing three-packs of compact fluorescent bulbs through the Good Shepherd Food-Bank system to low-income Mainers across the state.
“That is a little thing, but it will help people with electric bills,” he said.
McCormick refused to specify any of the actions her agency has taken or will take to address the governor’s stated goal of $15 million in additional help.
“We’re fumbling because the report isn’t done and it’s premature to give you numbers before the report is done,” she said. The Maine State Housing Authority distributes the federal LIHEAP money and she said that is the only money the agency has for LIHEAP.
McCormick said the report will detail the ways her agency will help in keeping poor Mainers warm this heating season. An estimated 65,000 Mainers are eligible for LIHEAP.
Stoddard said the state is in a better position now than when the agencies first were approached by the governor to help with LIHEAP funding. He said his agency has both state and federal restrictions on how it can spend money that comes from federal grants and a tax on electric bills.
“That’s got to go to the benefit of electric customers,” he said.
Fletcher said savings at the 800 homes targeted by Efficiency Maine will mean the overall amount of LIHEAP funds will go further than originally planned for those using oil or other energy sources.
“We’re not looking at it as just buying more oil, but how can we manage that total resource,” he said.
Fletcher said he expects the report will be ready for the governor in a few days and he then will release all of the details. He did not say whether the total efforts of the two agencies will be the equivalent of the $15 million target set by LePage.
The irony is that Penguin is asking two agencies who serve poor Mainer’s to find a way to cut their funding to serve poor Mainers. This guy continues to amaze.
You have got to be a paid operative to keep going on and on bashing the LePage administration. It really takes away from your credibility. And if these agencies have extra monies and instead of building apartments that cost over 300 thousand dollars why not help by using some of that money to heat poor peoples homes?
You sound like a paid operative …
What I read in this article was that he asked them to find ways to redistribute the resources that they have. Their response was to “weatherize these homes tis winter.” How about today? I just love how they are going to give the needy three-packs of curly-bulbs. At least incandescents throw off some heat. Unbelievable the gall these folks who okay some $250,000 per unit on low-income housing have.
Federal goverment lowered the funding from 54 million to 38 million and its the governors fault. Some people are just haters or they can’t read.
If you bought booze,cigarettes,pot, modified vehicle exhaust parts,a tattoo,a atv or a snowmobile, during the past say 12 months…you should be denied heating assistance. You should have been cutting back and saving
So the children of these folks should spend the winter freezing because they weren’t lucky enough to wind up with responsible parents? Your thinking is too over-simplified to be of any real use. Same as Penguin’s.
There is always an angle to get irresponsible people away from being responsible.
‘You cant do this to irresponsible people because of this….You cant do that to irresponsible people because of that. So the general population gets more and more irresponsible by the day.
Some day the BLANK is going to hit the fan in this country and there will be no money left. The numerous irresponsible mommie and daddies and their kids that we have let be created, will be living on street corners like a 3rd world country.
It is you who is being over-simplified to the problems of reality.
That day was about 1 trillion dollars ago when our debt exceeded our GDP. The peope in the know now have their fingers crossed.
Hope and change everyone, hope and change!
It was Bush that put us into this position.
” I wasn’t my fault, it was someone else.” BULL! Our current president has TRIPLED our national debt since he has been in office. NOT cut a dime from spending but spent more.
I’ll bet you think it is LePage’s fault for the state of Maine’s economic situation now.
Let’s all just piont a finger at the person next to us and repeat” It’s his/her fault.” Feel better?
Actually you make a good point about pointing the finger to the person or person’s next to you. We all voted or did not in one capacity or another for the 535 do nothings in Washington. So as soon as we get someone there that is willing to make a difference and means it the sooner our next generations will be out of debt because it is not happening on this watch.
No, it was Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who put us into this position. It has been compounded by Barak Obama. I am one of those people who have received LIHEAP benefits and I am deeply grateful for the help. I don’t feel entitled, just thankful that my friends and neighbors have been so willing to help. That help has paid off, as the winterization provided cut my oil usuage by 300 gallons last year. I don’t know what the answer is, but electing a president who doesn’t obstruct research and development of resources like the Keystone pipeline will certainly help.
how?
I’m not the one advocating for kids to be cold.
Perhaps a solution might be to make the benefit a loan for those who do not manage their money wisely, and rely on the taxpayer to help them out. Repayment made in a manner similar to the way deadbeat parents pay child support, the loan never canceled until paid.
So keeping little kids from freezing this winter is an “angle”.
So what are we going to bail out everyone for poor economic decisions and completely absolve the concept of personal responsibility? You think humanity has the economic resources to accomplish such a foolish approach?
Your thinking is completely irrational and not applicable to the real world. Same as all small minded, short sighted progressives.
So what are we going to bail out everyone for poor economic decisions
and completely absolve the concept of personal responsibility?
Citibank, Bank of America, General Motors… ring any bells, why should we treat people differently than we do major corporations who show up to hearings in private jets and write multi-million dollar bonus checks? The people of Maine are “too big to fail” much more so than a car manufacturer or a bank
You sound responsible so these irresponsible people should let you heat the home of their children for the winter. Wait you can’t do that because the irresponsibe parents will also be heated for the winter. Sounds like a problem for the heat police !!!
Bangorian many of the people who come for assistance are the most irresponsible adults I have ever met. I work at an agency that gives help to people in need. Many of these people could care less about their children. They only use them to get what they want. I raised a large family and the basic needs of my children came first, I went without. You are an enabler of dysfunctional behavior. You really don’t care about the children, your only care at this moment is your obsessed dislike of Gov LePage. Bangorian, get dressed today and do something useful.
You dont belong in the job that you are in!
If you cant take the heat get out of the kitchen.
You are condemning the very existance of those who are responsible for your income / subsitenance.
You are an enabler of dysfunctional behavior. You really don’t care about the children, your only care at this moment is your obsessed dislike of assistance to others.
my207 get dressed today and do something useful.
Quit
I don’t get paid for what I do. The people I help love me and I just got back volunteering handing out food and clothes. Want to join me tomorrow?
Yes. Then we can both get on the BDN and spout poop about the people who “love you”.
Sounds like you need a hug.
so your answer is to continue to fork over more money that won’t go to heating? smart, real smart.. your thinking is overignorant
How about if you include giving money to a church?
Penquis Cap has a fund you can donate to.
You should have been cutting back and saving
Like the 1% ?
I agree, I wonder how much of some people’s irresponsible behavior with what money they do have goes back to a upbringing without consequenses for you actions. Give your unruly child a light tap on the bottom for unruly behavior and someone will call the police. Are kids better behaved today?
The children who are well behaved in public today are the ones with whom the parents spent time with them at home at a very early age teaching them discipline and how society expects them to act in public. And not necessarily using physical methods.
Unfortunately neither Washington nor Augusta can legislate common sense…just as they couldn’t before the housing bubble burst.
I find it disgusting that people from Maine cannot heat their homes without aide from that obama fellow in Washington DC. I thought Mr. Lepage said that obama fellow could “kiss his butt”. Why accept money from someone you do not respect. I say we should lovingly kiss Mr. Lepage’s butt and accept his wisdom. I will gladly eat my foot to save Mr. Lepage’s right hand that gives us hope and reason to live in Maine.
By the time these jokers decided where the money will be coming from we will be in the middle of the Folk Festival.
You are so right. They wait until it is freezing outside before they even start with the process of seeing who will and will not get assistance, and all you get for an answer is call us back if you don’t hear from us by,(some date in the far future).
Dale and her cronies are trying to figure out how much they can skim without drawing undo attention.
Lepage is trying to take our eyes off what he is doing to DHHS. There is no need of what he is doing when they can cut taxes to high income retirees to keep
them in Maine. It’s evil. What else can you call it. Where are the Right
To Life People? Don’t we elderly have as much right to life as a fetus?
We simply do not have enough people in Augusta passing the buck around. We should hire more bureaucrats, that is the solution. The hot air generated in Augusta could heat the whole state.
If someone needs help they should turn to the churches for help. The pastors, clergy and “Christians” in this state need to remember that they are supposed to use the money thithed to support their communities needs not to build megachurches and line their own pockets.
I have some news for you. Churches are suffering, their parishners have less money.
These the same “Christians” that helped the Muslims by slaughtering women and children during the Crusades? Or are they the “Christians” that tortured and imprisoned people like Galileo for daring to say the Sun not the Earth was the center of the universe during the Dark Ages from which, even with all the scientific discoveries of the 20th century, we have not yet recovered from 500 years of free thinking being a crime against God? Or are they the “Christians” that bomb clinics because they provide abortion services? Or are these the overly open-minded “Christians” who staged Harry Potter book burnings and honestly believe you can “pray away the gay?”
Many do, mine does. I wonder how many churches of the conservatives (to sterotype, Catholic, Baptist, etc.) do? However, the churches can’t do it all. Their contributions are down too. And for many (excluding the mega churches and person fiefdoms) the money doesn’t just go for salaries and infrastructure, it goes for public benefits of all kinds.
So, Maine is going to get $26.5 million less for LIHEAP and we are scrambling to get extra funds to help those truly in need of heating assistance. Here’s where we get the money from just one source: At some point, if it hasn’t already happened, First Wind will get 30% of its estimated $130 million cost of the useless Rollins wind project in the Lincoln area. A free gift through ARRA from the US Taxpayer just for building a boondoggle. It comes to $39 million, give or take a few million depending on final cost figures. But who is counting, since it is a waste of taxpayer money. The shameless thieves at First Wind will give the local snowmobile club a gift of money to buy off opposition to destroying the mountains and ridges, but they won’t help ease the heating burden of poor people. The Legislature should convene and pass a bill for a special tax to take that money from First Wind to make up the LIHEAP shortfall. Then we do the same to Angus King’s wind project at Roxbury, near Rumford, and so on.
Hey Gov’nah .. You got $9,000,000 in the kiddy that your giving to the Maine Maritime Academy for unknown reasons.. or reasons that are certainly very, very suspect.
I wish someone would help me! I just bought 221 gallons of heating oil and our bill was $857.00 Never In My Life would I ever imagine paying This much For Heating Oil. No Wonder People Can’t Put Any Money In The Bank. Between Gasoline and Heating Oil There is No Money Left!! ECONOMY REALLY SUCKS!!!
So does your shift button. Just saying! ;)
Man, did you get ripped off.
Dead River At It’s Best!!
I find it interesting that LePage is involving 2 entities that he wants more control of and has asked the legislature to give it to him; The Maine State Housing Authority and Office of Energy Independence and Security. Both of the directors of these two are required by law to be voting members on the Board of Trustees/Directors of Efficiency Maine, which is funded through, in part, electric rates.
Hmmm, now I’m beginning to see why he wants the Energy Independence and Security office under his office, and more say at MSHA. I think he intends to use these in an attempt to help those businesses he’s been talking so much about with their energy charges.
Raise the Minumum wage and maybe these folks can move out of thier inefficient 1920″s farm houses and 1960’s little boxes designed for fair weather and mobility.
Maybe then they can afford to heat thier own home by themselves in the future economies!
Minimum wages are set to keep the working poor down and dependent on the government. If the government was really serious (which they never are) minimum wage would be $20. Government would never allow it because they wouldn’t have control of the poor.
When the dough heads down in Disgusta last summer were haggling over the state pies of blueberry and whoopee they weren’t giving a thought to the up coming winta,, brings back the old Aesop Fable of the ant and the grasshopper doesn’t it ??? Now the Efficiency Maine goofs want to go into folks homes in the dead of winta and do repairs that should’ve / could’ve been done in the summer time ????????? BIG DUH on that one :-/
On another note why don’t they hook up those high producing egg beaters (aka wind mills) to the folks that heat with electricity and not charge em ?? It’s all welfare whether it be cooperate or help for the needy :-/
This lack of wisdom in Maine is to be contrasted with the actions taken in VT, reported on in today’s news. Procrastination and buck passing at its worst, esepecially coming from our fearless leader.