Oklahoma House of Representatives
January 30, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

By MIKE W. RAY
House Media Division Director
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A measure filed in the state House of Representatives would provide low-income families with desperately needed financial assistance in paying their utility bills.

A portion of unclaimed funds transferred to the state would be earmarked, by House Bill 2225, to help pay utility bills of indigent families. The author of the proposal is Rep. Terry Ingmire, R-Stillwater.

State law decrees that any public utility deposit which a customer paid "in advance for utility services to be furnished," and that remains unclaimed by its owner for more than a year after service has been canceled, "is presumed abandoned." The law requires those funds to be transmitted to the State Treasurer's Office.

Existing law directs the Treasurer to calculate what percentage of unclaimed deposits or advance payments "should be retained as a reserve in order to ensure that all claims" submitted by persons who establish a legal right to those funds "shall be paid promptly." The balance is then placed in the state's General Revenue Fund for appropriation by the Legislature.

Under HB 2225, the balance would instead be sent to the state Department of Human Services "for use in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program." LIHEAP is a federally mandated program designed to help low-income families pay their heating and cooling bills.

Ingmire said the idea for HB 2225 was inspired by his experience as a business office consultant with Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. "We get a lot of returns, where we can't locate people to refund their utility deposits," he said. "At the same time, we have a lot of elderly people at or below the poverty level" who can't afford to pay their utility bills. House Bill 2225 would capitalize on the former circumstances to benefit the latter.

Mel Phillips, coordinator of the LIHEAP program for the Department of Human Services, said the federal government earmarked a $13.2 million block grant to Oklahoma to provide needy families with public assistance on their air conditioning bills this year.

Phillips said 10 percent of that sum, or $1.3 million, is reserved for administrative expenses, and 9 percent, $1.1 million, is allocated to the state Commerce Department for modest weatherization improvements (caulk, insulation, etc.) to residences of low-income families.

The balance, approximately $10.8 million, will be devoted to paying utility bills of indigent families. Phillips indicated a little over two-thirds of the funds, about $7.4 million, will be spent on heating bills this winter and a little less than one-third, or approximately $3.4 million, is set aside for home cooling bills this summer.

Phillips estimated that 90,000 Oklahoma households will receive financial assistance through the LIHEAP this year. Eligibility is based on each family's income and assets.

The average one-time public assistance payment is $90 for heating bills and $100-$110 for air conditioning in the summer, he said.

Funding for the program is "way inadequate," he added, and pointed to a recently released federal study which reported that 197,000 Oklahoma households live on incomes of less than $750 per month.

-- 82,000 families have incomes of no more than $372 per month -- which is less than half the federal poverty level.

-- 51,000 families have disposable incomes no greater than $561 a month.
-- 64,000 households live on monthly incomes of $748 or less.
House Bill 2225 has been assigned to the House Committee on Government Operations, Agency Oversight and Administrative Rules.

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