To repeal sections 660.100, 660.105, 660.110, 660.115, 660.120, 660.122, 660.125 and 660.135, RSMo 1994, and section 660.130, RSMo Supp. 1996, relating to the funding of the Missouri utilicare and related energy assistance programs, and to enact ten new sections relating to the same subject, with an emergency clause.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS:

     Section A. Sections 660.100, 660.105, 660.110, 660.115, 660.120, 660.122, 660.125 and 660.135, RSMo 1994, and section 660.130, RSMo Supp. 1996, are repealed and ten new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 660.100, 660.105, 660.110, 660.115, 660.120, 660.122, 660.125, 660.130, 660.135 and 660.136, to read as follows:

     660.100. 1. The department of social services is directed to establish a plan for providing financial assistance to elderly households, [and] disabled households and qualified individual households for the payment of charges for the primary or secondary heating or cooling source for the household. This plan shall be known as "Utilicare".

     2. For purposes of sections 660.100 to [660.135] 660.136, the term "elderly" shall mean having reached the age of sixty-five and the term "disabled" shall mean totally and permanently disabled or blind and receiving federal social security disability benefits, federal supplemental security income benefits, veterans administration benefits, state blind pension pursuant to sections 209.010 to 209.160, RSMo, state aid to blind persons pursuant to section 209.240, RSMo, or state supplemental payments pursuant to section 208.030, RSMo. For purposes of sections 660.100 to 660.136, but not for the purpose of subdivision (4) of section 660.138, the term "qualified individual household" means a household in which:

     (1) One or more residents of the state of Missouri reside and whose combined household income is less than or equal to one hundred and fifty percent of the current federal poverty level for the relevant household; and

     (2) A household which is eligible for assistance under the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and related state programs of the Missouri department of social services.

     660.105. Every qualified individual household for which an application is made, and every applicant household in which the head of the household or spouse is elderly or disabled and the income for the prior calendar year does not exceed [seven thousand five hundred dollars] one hundred and fifty percent of the current federal poverty level, shall be issued a "utilicare card" if sufficient moneys have been appropriated by the general assembly to the utilicare stabilization fund established pursuant to section 660.136, RSMo. "Income" shall be as defined in section 135.010, RSMo. [A determination that an applicant meets the eligibility requirements shall be made before a utilicare card is issued. Application for participation in the utilicare program must be made annually.]

     660.110. The department of social services shall be responsible for coordination of all federal heating and cooling assistance programs as well as the utilicare program and shall provide plans for the implementation and administration of these programs. The department may contract with local not for profit community agencies which render energy assistance pursuant to affiliation or contract with the United States Community Service Administration or another federal agency to distribute the federal moneys and to administer the federal heating and cooling assistance programs in accordance with the plan developed by the department. The department may contract with local not for profit community agencies which render energy assistance pursuant to affiliation or contract with the United States Community Service Administration or another federal agency to provide certain administrative services in connection with the utilicare program which may include the processing of utilicare applications and any other service which the department deems practical. Insofar as possible, within the provisions of federal law and regulations, all payments made from funds available from the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 and other federal sources shall be made directly to energy suppliers in a manner similar to payments made under the state utilicare program.

     660.115. 1. Application may be made by mail as prescribed by rule. After the first day of July of any year the holder of a utilicare card may take or send the card and duplicate original signed forms requesting payment for the heating bills to the supplier of the primary or secondary heating source for the household and request that the supplier bill fifty percent of the heating bill for the subsequent months of December, January and February, but not more than fifty dollars per month, to the state for payment. Subject to the provisions of the extreme heat rule as established and as amended by the public service commission, the holder of a utilicare card may take or send the card and duplicate original signed forms requesting payment for the cooling bills to the supplier of the primary or secondary cooling source for the household and request that the supplier bill fifty percent of the cooling bill for the subsequent months during the period of the extreme heat rule, but not more than fifty dollars per month, to the state for payment. The forms for requesting the payment for the bills must be signed both by the cardholder and by the supplier, and one of the duplicate original forms and the utilicare card must be transmitted to the appropriate agency by the supplier. Following the end of each of the covered months the supplier shall submit to the appropriate agency a statement or record of each utilicare cardholder's total heating or cooling bill for the most recent monthly billing cycle, the amount to be paid by the state for each utilicare cardholder, and the total amount due the supplier from the state for that month. After the validity of the claim is verified, the amount to be paid shall be transmitted to the supplier. An amount not exceeding one hundred fifty dollars for the covered months may be paid to suppliers of heating fuels not delivered on a regular monthly basis, such as wood, coal, propane and heating oil, with such amount not to exceed fifty percent of the heating bill for the covered period.

     2. For a utilicare cardholder, other than a person living in publicly owned or subsidized housing, an adult boarding facility, an intermediate care facility, a residential care facility or a skilled nursing facility, who rents his dwelling and who does not pay a supplier directly for his primary or secondary heating or cooling source, utilicare payments shall be paid directly to the cardholder in three monthly payments, except that total payments shall not exceed eight percent of his annual rent or one hundred dollars, whichever is less.

     660.120. 1. Funds for the utilicare program may come from state, federal, or other sources.

     2. Any household which is eligible to receive both federal assistance and utilicare assistance in paying for its primary or secondary heating or cooling source may receive utilicare assistance only as follows: In the event that the federal assistance available to such household is less than the total benefits available to the household under the provisions of section 660.115, then the household may receive utilicare assistance only in an amount equal to the amount of the difference between the federal assistance available in paying for its primary or secondary heating or cooling source and the total benefits available to such household under the provisions of section 660.115.

     660.122. Notwithstanding any other provision of sections 660.100 to [660.135] 660.136 to the contrary, funds appropriated under the authority of sections 660.100 to [660.135] 660.136 may be used to pay the expenses of reconnecting or [reservicing] maintaining service to households that have had their primary or secondary heating or cooling source disconnected or service discontinued because of their failure to pay their bill. Any qualified household or household which has as its head a person who is elderly or disabled, as defined in section 660.100[, or who is unemployed and currently drawing or has exhausted his unemployment benefits] shall be eligible for assistance under this section if the income for the household is no more than one hundred fifty percent of the current federal poverty level [or sixty percent of the Missouri median income, whichever amount is greater] and if sufficient moneys have been appropriated by the general assembly to the utilicare stabilization fund established pursuant to section 660.136, RSMo. Payments under this section shall be made directly to the primary or secondary heating or cooling source supplier. Any primary or secondary heating source supplier subject to the supervision and regulation of the public service commission shall, at any time during the period of the cold weather rule specified in the cold weather rule as established and as amended by the public service commission, reconnect and provide services to each household eligible for assistance under this section [which has paid, or has had paid on its behalf from either public or private funds, or both, an amount equal to the greater of seventy-five dollars or twenty-five percent of the total outstanding unpaid bills at the time of its disconnection. The remaining unpaid portion of the outstanding bill and bills for service rendered after the reconnection shall be paid in accordance with rules which shall be promulgated by the public service commission. If such bills are paid in accordance with public service commission rules, the primary or secondary heating source supplier shall not disconnect service for the reason that such bills have not been paid in full. No primary or secondary heating source supplier shall be required to reconnect service pursuant to this section for any person who, within the twelve months preceding the request for reconnection, has failed to comply with the public service commission rules governing the payment of the unpaid portion of an outstanding bill and bills for service rendered after a prior reconnection of service pursuant to this section.] in compliance with the terms of such cold weather rule. Any primary or secondary cooling source supplier subject to the supervision and regulation of the public service commission shall, at any time during the period of the extreme heat rule as specified in the extreme heat rule as established and as amended by the public service commission and after a determination by the department of health that a heat alert or a heat emergency exists, reconnect and provide services to each household eligible for assistance under this section in compliance with the terms of such extreme heat rule. Notwithstanding the above, the division of family services shall only utilize general revenue funds appropriated in conjunction with this chapter after such time as the division has utilized all federal funds available for the purposes enumerated above.

     660.125. Any false claim knowingly made in an application for a utilicare card or any false claim knowingly made by the holder of a utilicare card or by a supplier of the primary or secondary heating or cooling source or of heating fuel in a request for payment under the utilicare program shall be deemed a false declaration as defined in section 575.060, RSMo.

     660.130. The department of social services shall design the forms and issue rules and regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of sections 660.100 to [660.135] 660.136. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under the authority of sections 660.100 to [660.135] 660.136 shall become effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to the provisions of section 536.024, RSMo. Such rules shall provide that in order for a homeowner to be eligible such homeowner shall have met federal energy conservation guidelines for insulation, or have made application for insulation under the department of natural resources program or like program offered in the state of Missouri. Large notices of the availability of this program shall be posted in application areas and local offices of the division of family services. Such rule shall also provide for a system of crediting and debiting accounts for eligible households with utility companies when the recipient of the assistance moves to a different location within or out of the state.

     660.135. 1. Not more than [five] twenty million [one hundred forty thousand] dollars from general revenue shall be appropriated by the general assembly to the utilicare stabilization fund established pursuant to section 660.136, RSMo, for the support of the utilicare program established by sections 660.100 to [660.135] 660.136 for any fiscal year, except in succeeding years the amount may be increased by a percentage which reflects the national cost of living index or seven percent, whichever is lower.

     2. The department of social services shall, in coordination with the department of natural resources, apply at least ten percent and up to twenty percent of the funds appropriated annually by the general assembly to the utilicare stabilization fund established pursuant to section 660.136 to the low income weatherization assistance program of the department of natural resources.

     660.136. The "Utilicare Stabilization Fund" is hereby created in the state treasury to support the provisions of sections 660.100 to 660.136. Moneys in the utilicare stabilization fund that are not required to meet or augment the utilicare funding requirements of the state in any fiscal year shall be invested by the state treasurer in the same manner as other surplus funds are invested. Interest, dividends and moneys earned on such investments shall be credited to the utilicare stabilization fund. Such fund may also receive gifts, grants, contributions, appropriations and funds or benefits from any other source or sources, and make investments of the unexpended balances thereof.

     Section B. Because immediate action is necessary to provide heating assistance to low income households during the 1996 to 1997 winter heating season, section A of this act is deemed necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health, welfare, peace and safety, and is hereby declared to be an emergency act within the meaning of the constitution, and section A of this act shall be in full force and effect upon its passage and approval.