Gimme Relief
April 25th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) passed his System Benefit Fund bill through the House earlier today. Finally. Sent back twice this session on a point of order and the threat of a point of order, HB 551 moves towards restoring a program to help low-income folks out with their utility bills.
If you haven’t heard before, the government collects a little $.65 fee on your electric bill each month with the stated purpose of helping out those less fortunate. That adds up to more than $150 million each year. But at least since 2003 our esteemed legislators have seen fit to spend these millions collected for the System Benefit Fund on balancing the budget.
HB 551 would provide for a 10-20 percent rate reduction for the elderly and poor as well as critical care patients. Consumer advocates and social services agencies have been agitating for proper use of the System Benefit Fund for years now, warning that Texans are getting hammered by record-high electric rates in the deregulated areas of the state. Turner says that combined with the 15 percent electric rate reduction barely passed two weeks ago, the Lege is moving closer to making electricity considerably more affordable in Texas.
For HB 551 to make a dime’s worth of difference, however, it will need budget conferees to actually appropriate the money. The House budget dedicates $170 million to the fund for the biennium. That represents about 22 percent of the total funds that will be available over the next biennium, according to Carol Biedrzycki, executive director of the Texas Ratepayers’ Organization to Save Energy.
