By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Legislation to fund the state's Utilicare program has unanimously passed both the Missouri House and Senate, and will be signed into law by Governor Matt Blunt on Thursday.
Utilicare program provides money to help needy Missourians pay their heating bills. The bill was sponsored by Republican Representative Allen Icet of St. Louis County.
"I'd just like to thank my colleagues in the House for their overwhelming bipartisan support of this critical piece of legislation," said Icet, "as well as my colleagues in the Senate as we moved this quite quickly or actually through the General Assembly."
Utilicare provides funds to low-income Missourians who can't pay their winter utility bills.
"Last year Utilicare was able to help over 12,000 Missouri Households," says governor Blunt, "it's an extraordinary accomplishment and a true testament of what government can do when it puts politics, in the back and puts people ahead of politics."
The bill will provide 6.3 million dollars to fund Utilicare for Fiscal Year 2008. Over 12-thousand Missourians benefited from the program last year.