Senator Gary Siplin, District 19 — Press Release

Sen. Siplin Gets One Step Closer to Additional Energy Assistance for Low-Income Families

Senate Bill 100 Passes from Another with Bipartisan Support

Tallahassee —  

Legislation being sponsored by State Senator Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, that will reallocate unclaimed utility dollars to assist needy families with utility assistance made its way through the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation on Monday.

The bill proposes to take unclaimed utility deposits and funnel them into a Trust Fund within the Department of Economic Opportunity to supplement the State’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps low income households in all of Florida’s 67 counties meet their immediate home energy needs.

“This is the most logical way to help our most vulnerable and needy citizens maintain this basic necessity of life without digging further into the State’s coffers,”  Siplin stated after the bill passed by a 6-to-1 vote.

Currently, unclaimed utility deposits are transferred into the State School Trust Fund, which was created in 1838 as a federal trust condition for establishing a public school system in the State.  In recent years, however, the State School Trust Fund has accounted for less than one percent of all state and required local public school funding combined.

Siplin said his office in constantly inundated with calls for utilities assistance, which was his motivation for filing this legislation.

“Elderly and low-income residents who are in crisis should not be forced to choose between keeping their lights on and buying groceries or refilling prescriptions.  It makes sense to put these unclaimed utility dollars to use to help provide utilities.”

The bill is making its way to the Senate Floor, with one final stop in the Senate’s Budget Committee.

Identical legislation is being sponsored by Rep. Barbara Watson, D-Miami Gardens, in the Florida House of Representatives.

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