Proposed home heating aid cuts raise concerns

CONCORD, N.H. – The president’s proposal to cut home heating aid to the poor is getting a cool response from officials in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Program administrators say the prospect of nearly $200 million less in federal heating aid for the country leaves two choices: to give out fewer grants or lower the amount for each recipient. The result would be the same, they said. More elderly, disabled and poor families would have to choose between paying for food and medication or heat.

“We can’t serve everybody now,” said Dale McCormick, director of the Maine State Housing Authority, which runs the state’s home heating aid program. “I think it’s pretty cold-hearted to cut fuel assistance when oil prices are up 40 percent.”

With heating oil prices in the region hovering at around $2 per gallon, applications for federal home heating assistance in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are up; all expect to surpass the number of households helped last year.

Vermont already has distributed home heating aid to 18,000 households, nearly as many as last winter’s total. New Hampshire has received nearly 30,000 applications for help this season, 3,000 short of last year’s total. Maine sent home heating help to 46,000 households last year; this year it expects to help 50,000 before the April 30 application deadline.

In Vermont, program administrators likely would choose to reduce benefits rather than cut people from the list, said Pam Dalley, chief of Vermont’s home heating and fuel assistance program. With the addition of contingency funds, average home heating grants in Vermont will total about $800 this winter. Recipients get $550 in New Hampshire, $486 in Maine.

“Unless there’s a drastic drop in fuel prices, it could be a really critical situation come next November,” said Tina Wilder, a family services supervisor in Vermont’s Office of Home Heating Fuel Assistance.

Most of Vermont’s heating aid recipients are disabled, like 39-year-old Christopher Kinkade of North Troy. Kinkade receives $950 a month from Social Security; he estimates his total heating oil bill for the winter will be $1,000. He said a cut in heating benefits would put him in a tough spot.

“I don’t know what I would do. I would really have to buckle down on my food budget,” he said. Heating aid covers a portion of fuel costs; Kinkade said he still struggles to pay for oil, despite the grant. “Right now I’m running on my last tank and I don’t have any more fuel … so I’m going to have to struggle the rest of the winter unless there is additional help,” he said.

The federal government portions out fuel assistance money in stages: an initial base amount followed by contingency funds if they are available and needed. The program’s viability depends on the base, said Celeste Lovett, New Hampshire’s fuel assistance program manager.

“There’s no guarantee any year that we will receive those contingency funds so it’s extremely important to make sure the base grant remains the same or increases,” she said.

Members of Vermont’s congressional delegation said they would fight attempts to cut funding.

“For states like Vermont and New Hampshire – cold-weather states – this would be a disaster,” said Rep. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent.

“We have already begun and continue to work with members of Congress to demand not only full funding of [the program], but an increase in … funding,” he said.

Sen. Jim Jeffords, another Vermont independent, also said he would oppose the cut.

Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., said he doubted home heating aid would be cut.

“My guess is because of the nature of the program, because of the factors that determine budget levels – weather, heating costs and demand – that it will be funded based on that,” he said. “I think it’s one of those things that will be level-funded.”