ENGLEWOOD — The $69 Shirley Thomas receives each month for her electric bill is at risk of getting reduced due to state budget cuts Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed.
Thomas, 79, has been receiving help since her husband died 14 years ago. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, has helped the Chatham resident. She is eligible for a part of the program called the Percentage of Income Payment Plan that helps low-income customers, seniors and others with fixed incomes to manage their utility bills.
To qualify the individuals must meet a specific annual household income before taxes which can be found online.
“If I had to pay, oh my goodness, I would be in a mess,” she said. “I wouldn’t hardly be able to pay my bills.”
Thomas lives on a fixed-income and said that without help from the program, life would be “difficult.”
The same goes for Versa Williams, a 78-year-old Bronzeville resident. The program puts up to $150 toward her heating and cooling energy costs, and Williams said she can’t afford to not receive the assistance.
“It would be a struggle because when you retire, you don’t get that much,” she said.
Rauner has proposed taking the $265 million that Illinois customers contribute to the LIHEAP fund and using it for general budget needs, according to The Gate newspaper. Jim Chilsen, communications director for the Citizens Utility Board, a utilities watchdog group, told DNAinfo Chicago that the $95 million Rauner wants to take from Illinois would impact more than 350,000 households.
"Programs like [the Percentage of Income Payment Plan] are sound public policy that protects Illinois families and keep costs from spiraling out of control," he said. "We think a program like [the Percentage of Income Payment Plan] has multiple benefits and we don’t think funds should be diverted from it."
People like Williams and Thomas are the people whom Rauner’s proposed cuts would affect, Ald. Toni Foulkes (16th) said Monday evening at a town hall meeting at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 6248 S. Stewart Ave. in Englewood.
“There are a lot of people who this is going to affect, so we have to mobilize, organize and get people out,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but we have to do it or we’re going to fall on the cliff.
She, Sen. Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago), Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago) and Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) hosted the meeting on Monday. Local Englewood organizations such as the Resident Association of Greater Englewood and the Englewood Political Task Force worked with them to bring the information to the community.
Rauner’s proposed cuts include human services, and health and family services.
Representatives from the Shriver Center for Poverty Law, the Citizens Utility Board and other groups addressed the audience, too.
Keith Harris, the vice president of the Englewood Political Task Force, said that the meeting was a collaboration of several Englewood organizations.
“In Englewood, we always have to fight for everything,” he said. “We’re trying to hit every corner of Englewood.”The politicians shared what the Illinois Black Legislative Caucus is doing on the budget.
“We need to start organizing and getting serious, stop letting people play us,” said Foulkes, who added that Chicago needs to work with the rest of the state because the cuts would affect everyone.
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