Texas has stopped helping poor families pay their electric bills,reports The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Over the past years the Lone Star State ran a program called Lite-Up Texas. The initiative offered discounts to thousands of poor Texas families who were struggling to keep the lights on. But now the Public Utility Commission says the program has run out of money. The financial help ended on Aug. 31.
The proverbial well has finally run dry after lawmakers axed the program's funding three years ago. Advocates are worried that low-income families will be blindsided when their assistance vanishes. Lynda Ender, a program director at Senior Source, a nonprofit that provides services to elderly folks in Dallas, said she’s expecting a flood of calls. She added, “[These people] don’t have the luxury of planning ahead.”
The program was instituted in 1999. Since then, it has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance.