New State Money Provided in Colorado

On May 5, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed two bills to help low-income Coloradans get help paying their heating and power bills.

SB 201 provides for $7.6 million in state money to flow into the state’s LIHEAP immediately.  The money will come from interest the state has earned on federal money it has received, and from mineral and energy severance taxes paid to the state.

Owens also signed SB 1, which creates an ongoing donation program through the state's utilities. Customers can sign up for the program through their utility and tell it how much they'd like to donate every month to Energy Outreach Colorado, a private, nonprofit organization that raises and distributes money year-round to help Colorado's poor pay energy bills.

Payment through the donation program will be made directly to the energy company  not the applicant  and will be available to each applicant only once per year. Supporters of the new program, referred to as an “opt-in” program, expect it to raise between $2 million and $3 million a year. 

Supporters had preferred an “opt-out” program because it would have raised more money, and the legislature had passed a bill allowing such a program during the 2004 session. It would have imposed a 25-cent monthly surcharge to the gas and electric portions of residential utility bill and businesses would have been assessed $10 per month, unless customers requested to be exempted from the charge. The Governor vetoed that bill in June 2004 because he viewed the opt-out provision as a mandatory fee.

However, the Governor has acted several times in recent years to provide state money for LIHEAP, including $2.4 million in December 2004, $10 million in December 2003 and $10 million in January 2001.

Source: Denver Business Journal, LIHEAP Clearinghouse

Page Last Updated: December 7, 2005