Who pays?

There's a proposal to have the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation waive the power reconnection fee for low income households. You could even get the tight-cheeked, reactionary, I've-got-mine-Jack misbegotten progeny of Ayn Rand to agree with that one.

Poor people don't have extra cash, pretty much by definition. That's sixty dollars taken away from food, or the next power bill. Heart illnesses and invalids too. Who could be that cold?

Who's going to pay?

We can quibble about the amount, but it takes a trip to disconnect, a trip to reconnect and the paperwork has to be duly shuffled in the office. How much does PTI charge just to flip a virtual switch in their office?

Let CUC pay for it? CUC doesn't have jack, Jack. They collect money, from you or from governments. Somebody, somewhere is going to subsidize these exemptions.

There's history here. For as long as I can remember, the Legislature has been adding new retirement benefits (with the Board always asking who's going to pay) or government benefits without funding. It's most common every two years at election time. (Public Law 8-31, one of the worst, has never been fully funded.) That's hard to do these days, but old habits die hard and now it's CUC.

I really don't want to single out the bill's author. He means well. I even think it's a good idea—don't want to be one of those nasty people I described, after all.

Except... the habit's got to be broken. If it costs money, the revenue source should be identified, in the bill and in the committee report.

Don't make 'somebody' figure it out. The Legislature is filled with somebodies.