Connecticut

CT will bolster home heating aid funding in February, leaders say

Published

2 years ago

January 27, 2024

CT will bolster home heating aid funding in February, leaders say

Leaders of the General Assembly’s Democratic majority said this week they expect to introduce emergency legislation next month to supplement winter heating assistance depleted by shrinking federal funds.

House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford and Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney of New Haven both said the goal is to vote in mid-February, roughly one week after the regular session opens, when legislators also are expected to vote on judicial nominations.

Both Democratic leaders said the funding likely would be modest and expressed optimism they could overcome Gov. Ned Lamont’s reservations about using state funds to support an initiative traditionally paid for with federal dollars.

“We need to hedge against the rest of the winter being severe,” Looney said. “We can’t have people struggling and suffering in Connecticut.”

The Hartford Courant reported Thursday that the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating four deaths from suspected hypothermia during the recent cold snap. The deaths took place between Jan. 14 and 20 in Bridgeport, Hartford, Thomaston and Westbrook.

Officials investigating whether hypothermia contributed to four CT deaths during frigid stretch

Ritter said Democrats have been looking for an opportunity to bolster energy assistance, but it recently became clear that would not be feasible in a special session before the regular session starts Feb. 7.

“It’s something I support very much and something my caucus supports very much,” he said.

Though full details of the Democratic proposal were not available Wednesday, it is expected to center on the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program. The added funds would not be sufficient to elevate assistance to last winter’s levels but would mitigate a severe drop in grants.

CEAP, which is administered by the state Department of Social Services, distributes federal Low Income Household Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds and is facing severe cutbacks. Congress rolled back LIHEAP funding this year to pre-pandemic levels. Connecticut has about $85 million to distribute this winter — well below the $110 million-plus it awarded last year and the smallest amount since the winter of 2018-19.

But demand is up more than 40% from pre-pandemic levels, according to the social services department. Despite relatively mild weather, approved applications this year are up 14.4% from last winter’s pace and exceeded 63,400 through Jan. 6. At that pace, they would approach 121,000 before the program closes in the spring.

State social services officials estimated last August that the maximum amount the poorest household could receive was $1,350 based on available federal funds. That’s down almost $1,000 from last year’s top benefit, while many other families stand to lose hundreds of dollars.

East Hampton officials recently identified six residents that had exhausted their benefits by the first half of January, according to Eric Rosenberg, chairman of that community’s Commission on Aging.

Household income must be at or below 60% of the state median to qualify for CEAP. For a family of four, that’s a cap of $79,910.

The state’s Low Income Energy Advisory Board has asked state officials to bolster the $85 million Connecticut Energy Assistance Program budget by at least 20%, or roughly $17 million, to mitigate the financial hit these families are facing.

That ask represents 2.5% of the $645 million surplus Lamont’s budget office estimates Connecticut will have when the fiscal year closes June 30.

“The urgency to act on behalf of families this winter is growing,” said Claire Coleman, the state’s consumer counsel and chairwoman of the advisory board. “Connecticut has continually focused on ways to help those most vulnerable, and I’m hopeful that state leadership is proactive.”

Nora Duncan, vice chairwoman of the advisory board and state director of the AARP, urged municipal officials to follow East Hampton’s example and continue to inform legislators about residents who have exhausted all assistance but will likely need heat for several more months.

Ritter and Looney said the mid-February proposal to add state funds to CEAP likely would involve less than the $17 million the advisory board sought, given that slightly more than one month of winter already has passed.

Ritter added that leaders also are considering added funding for Operation Fuel, a Hartford-based energy assistance nonprofit.

Whether any state funding is spent on may hinge largely on Lamont, a fiscally moderate Democrat who has offered two concerns about using state dollars for energy assistance: The first is that LIHEAP grants are a federal responsibility; the second, that the program is only designed to help, not to cover the full winter heating needs of the poor.

Chris Collibee, Lamont’s budget spokesman, said Wednesday that the administration hasn’t seen any legislative proposals for supplemental funding to date.

“If legislative leaders believe that more funding is needed for LIHEAP, they should work with the state’s congressional delegation to secure such funding,” Collibee added. “While the administration is wary of creating a precedent for state support of this federal program, any proposals to provide state funds to supplement federal allocations will need to work within a balanced budget framework and compliance with all applicable budget caps.”

Members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation already have expressed skepticism that more energy assistance funds would be forthcoming from Washington.

Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, another advocate for pooling state funds with federal dollars to expand energy assistance, said this isn’t an unprecedented idea. Connecticut did this periodically both in the 1990s and in the 2000s, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of winter left … and we’ve got to be practical about this,” Lesser added. “Obviously the need is there.”

Minority Republicans in the state House and Senate said Wednesday that officials watched federal aid decline last year and shouldn’t have been stunned to see it fall again this winter.

Republicans have argued that state government, which has amassed roughly $11 billion in budget surpluses since 2017, should tap its own coffers to keep residents warm. The GOP proposed last spring that a contingency fund be established in the state budget so the General Assembly wouldn’t have to scramble this winter after some residents already were living in cold homes.

“It’s failed leadership, plain and simple,” said Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, “The longer we wait, the more we will see that … families are going without heat. I can’t believe a state of such wealth is in this situation.”

“This is a crisis, another fire set by Democrats that we will have to come and put out,” added House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford.

Source link

Related Topics:Connecticut News CT Mirror CT News Featured funding Government heating aid legislation Local News winter heating assistance

Click to comment

Connecticut

Study: Resource scarcity, bureaucracy barriers to natural gas use

Published

1 hour ago

November 10, 2025

Press Room

Study: Resource scarcity, bureaucracy barriers to natural gas use

Last week, the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research published a report about the hurdles to expanding natural gas use in Connecticut.

“There are obstacles to increasing Connecticut’s natural gas supply at each stage of the supply chain,” the report, which is authored by Senior Legislative Attorney Jessica Schaeffer-Helmecki, states. “The largest obstacle to increasing natural gas production is the fact that, due to Connecticut’s geology, it has minimal natural gas resources that are highly unlikely to be developed. The New England region is also geologically unable to store natural gas underground for use during periods of peak demand.”

Schaeffer-Helmecki found that, because of the limited natural gas resources in Connecticut, the state would have to rely on interstate pipelines to expand its natural gas use. This would require navigating multiple federal and state agencies, which is difficult, both because of the bureaucratic process and changing regulations. It also might require seizing land through eminent domain, which is another protracted process that would have to go through courts. Finally, Schaeffer-Helmecki predicts both public pushback and difficulty securing a customer base, meaning future projects may not be financially viable.

There are currently three pipelines that carry natural gas to Connecticut: the Algonquin Gas Transmission, which originates in New Jersey, the Iroquois Gas Transmission System, which originates in northern New York, and the Tennessee Gas Transmission, which draws natural gas from multiple places in the Gulf of America. Additionally, there is a proposed pipeline called the Constitution, which would run 125 miles from New York to Pennsylvania.

“Local distribution company (LDC; e.g., CT Natural Gas or Eversource) demand can be difficult to predict,” Schaeffer-Helmecki’s report states. “The largest natural gas takers (electric generators) typically do not enter into long term capacity agreements.”

Despite this, demand for natural gas in Connecticut is growing, especially in the winter, according to an S&P Global study that was published earlier this month.

This study identified some of the same obstacles that Schaeffer-Helmecki’s report did, including limited resources in the region and minimal construction.

“In the past, Connecticut created an initiative aimed at encouraging natural gas transmission pipeline companies to increase their capacity into the state and region by limiting some of the financial risk of the expansion,” Schaeffer-Helmecki’s report states. “However, the multi-state procurement process did not occur once a court overruled Massachusetts’ participation in it, and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) cancelled the customer conversion program in 2022 finding, among other things, an insufficient number of new customers enrolled in the program to justify the level of ratepayer subsidies that were needed to continue it.”

This S&P Global study found that, if the barriers to constructing the Constitution can be overcome, the pipeline would save ratepayers in the region a net $8.5 billion in its first 15 years of use. It would also generate an additional $8.5 billion in revenue for businesses in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts during that time period.

Source link

Connecticut

Gov. Lamont responds to President Trump’s decision to “undo” full SNAP benefits

Published

19 hours ago

November 9, 2025

Press Room

Gov. Lamont responds to President Trump’s decision to “undo” full SNAP benefits

As some states, including Connecticut, are issuing full SNAP benefits to recipients, the Trump administration is now saying those efforts need to be rolled back.

That’s according to a Department of Agriculture memo during the ongoing government shutdown.

As the government shutdown continues to drag on, the court battle over the lapse in federal funding of SNAP benefits remains front and center.

“There has been no other time in which SNAP benefits have been suspended due to government shutdown,” Brian Marks, a University of New Haven business professor, said.

As it plays out, Connecticut is among the few states moving ahead with using state funds to give full SNAP payments to recipients for November. Marks says the move by Governor Ned Lamont is notable, as he’s seen as a fiscal moderate.

“Governor Lamont is being thoughtful and considerate about those who need and trying to transfer funds where he can and where he has the authority,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that needs to stop after the Supreme Court issued a pause on a federal district court order telling the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP.

In a memo issued late Saturday, the USDA says the extent states had sent full SNAP payments for this month was “unauthorized” and says they must “immediately undo” those steps. It says failure to comply could result in actions such as the USDA holding states financially responsible over sending the full payments and cancelling federal cost-sharing of SNAP with them.

Governor Lamont responded to the memo saying the state didn’t need to take back SNAP funds saying in a statement:

“No, Connecticut does not need to take back SNAP benefits already sent to the 360,000 people who depend on them for food and who should have never been caught in the middle of this political fight. We continue to assess what impact this memo may have, but those who received their benefits should not worry about losing them. We have their back.”

Connecticut Republican Party chairman Ben Proto released a statement pushing for the government to reopen saying in part:

“It’s time for the Democrats to come to their senses, including Ned Lamont and other Democrat governors and to push their Democrat senators to vote for the continuing resolution and fund the government and SNAP & WIC and then sit down and negotiate a new budget. To paraphrase President Obama, it is irresponsible for the Democrats to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills to keep struggling families from being able to purchase groceries just to try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions. The financial and economic problems the people of CT face are from the failed economic policies of CT Democrats and Senators Blumenthal and Murphy’s total failure to protect their constituents.”

Professor Marks says as the debate continues, SNAP recipients will remain caught in the middle.

“It’s clear our elective federal representatives need to come forward and figure out a way to eliminate the shutdown and get this government moving again,” he said.

Source link

Connecticut

Late fumble recovery clinches UConn’s 37-34 come-from-behind win over the visiting Duke

Published

2 days ago

November 9, 2025

Press Room

Late fumble recovery clinches UConn’s 37-34 come-from-behind win over the visiting Duke

The hard lessons from earlier in the 2025 season set the stage for the most memorable win for the UConn football team.

Three losses by a total of 13 points stood between the Huskies and an undefeated record heading into Saturday’s clash with ACC title-contending Duke at Rentschler Field. A touchdown in the final two minutes and a game-clinching fumble recovery lifted UConn to a 37-34 win over Duke in front of the Huskies’ largest home crowd since 2013.

“It is the culmination of the lessons we learned this year from the close games that we have had. I think it is a testament to the will of our young men, the trust that they have in each other,” UConn coach Jim Mora said. “They could easily have played that game and said enough is enough, especially late in the fourth quarter. I think if we hadn’t had the failures we had in the two-minute drives earlier in the year, maybe we would have had the success we had tonight.”

UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano was 6 for 7 on the drive that ended with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Skyler Bell with 1:58 left. After a review, Fagnano’s two-point conversion run was good to put the Huskies up 37-34.

Duke was driving to try to force overtime, but UConn’s Bryun Parham stripped Duke quarterback Darian Mensah of the ball and Trent Jones recovered to secure UConn’s second win over an ACC team this season.

“I just knew I had to make it and just do my job,” Parham said. “I had to make the play. It was surreal. I’ve always wanted to make a play like that.”

Duke scored on its first two drives in the second half. Nate Sheppard had a 3-yard scoring run. The Blue Devils took the lead as Mensah rolled out and found Landen King in the corner of the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 1.

UConn converted on a fake punt to set up a 3-yard scoring run by Cam Edwards with 10:48 remaining to put UConn ahead 29-28.

Fagnano threw for 311 yards and three touchdowns for UConn (7-3). Bell finished with 11 catches for 87 yards and two scores, and Reymello Murphy added 110 yards receiving.

Bell’s biggest celebration came when the defense made its biggest play of the 2025 season.

“I was jumping for joy, I almost had a cramp,” said Bell, who went over 1,000 yards receiving early in the game and set the program record for touchdown catches in a season. “I was jumping (like) crazy. The defense came up big.”

Mensah threw for 222 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions for Duke (5-4). Sheppard rushed for 100 yards and two scores. However, Duke coach Manny Diaz pointed to the mistakes that were too much to overcome.

“The quarterback (Fagnano) is the real deal,” Diaz said. “”We were well aware of that. It was a loss that in all three phases that we made too many mistakes.”

UConn’s defense came up with a pair of interceptions in the first half — both leading to Chris Freeman field goals as the Huskies led 20-14 at halftime.

The takeaway

Duke: The Blue Devils are minus-nine in turnover margin in their four losses this season.

UConn: Fagnano has not thrown an interception this season. He did have his pass picked off on a two-point play with 10:48 left to play. It does not count as an interception since it happened on a special teams conversion attempt.