AUGUSTA (AP) – Some influential members of the Legislature want to take money from Maine’s Rainy Day reserves to help people who are running short of heating oil this winter.
Supporters say the high price of heating oil is cutting into the size of deliveries to households receiving Low Income Home Energy Assistance.
House Speaker Glenn Cummings of Portland says that means some families are getting deliveries of less than a tankful of oil, putting them in danger of going without heat.
Cummings and other Democratic and Republican lawmakers want to take $5 million from the state’s reserve funds to make sure that LIHEAP deliveries fill the tank. Senator Peggy Rotundo of Lewiston, who supports the move, says the reserve funds now add up to about $160 million.
Rotundo’s co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Representative Jeremy Fischer of Presque Isle, also supports the proposal.
AP-ES-02-07-08 1328EST
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