MonticelloLive

Rising gasoline-and-energy prices are affecting everyone in our state. But some Arkansans, including the elderly, the disabled, and those on low or fixed incomes, are left especially vulnerable.

This week I joined with community leaders and energy officials in speaking out for increased funding for Arkansans who need extra help paying their energy bills, especially during the cold winter months.

Turn up the heat or buy food? Pay the utility bill or buy medicine? Stay warm or buy gasoline to get to work? These are choices that thousands of Arkansas families are struggling with right now, but there is help available.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, is a federal program that helps working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and the disabled pay their utility bills. However, LIHEAP funding depends on federal appropriations, so the amount granted to the program varies from year to year. Since LIHEAP’s inception, the number of low-income households eligible for assistance has increased 78 percent. Yet, in fiscal year 2006, LIHEAP served less than a quarter of the 24.4-million eligible households nationwide. Since federal funding has not kept pace with skyrocketing fuel costs, an ever-increasing percentage of American and Arkansas families are simply unable to get help.

The LIHEAP program is essential to our most vulnerable citizens because they spend a higher portion of their income on energy. Last year, LIHEAP funds helped 65,000 Arkansas households pay their utility bills. That’s a good start, but it represents only about one-third of qualifying Arkansas households. The first duty of government is to protect its citizens, and I believe we can do more.

I’ve declared January 30th “Arkansas LIHEAP Day” to raise awareness of this critical need. My proclamation also supports a group of Arkansans who are traveling to Washington alongside advocates from across the country to ask Congress to approve an $800-million increase in LIHEAP funding. The expansion of LIHEAP funding to assist more low-income households with their energy bills is critical because energy costs are rising far too rapidly for working families to keep pace.

Heating bills are only one symptom of a growing economic squeeze affecting Arkansas families, and I am heartened by news that consensus in Washington is building on a bipartisan economic stimulus package to help our economy. Any effective stimulus package must be timely, targeted, and temporary. It also must recognize that state governments now bear a larger share of the burden and should be included in stimulus-funding proposals.

I’ve been in contact with members of Arkansas’s federal delegation, who are seeking common-sense solutions to this pressing matter. By working together, we can provide a stimulus plan that will best provide for Arkansas and her citizens.