Republicans urge special legislative session to boost low-income heating assistance. Democrats call it election-year politics, say ‘no.’

Minority Republicans in the General Assembly on Thursday urged Gov. Ned Lamont to call a special session of the legislature to increase spending on home heating assistance for low-income Connecticut residents.

It won’t happen. Less than nine weeks before Election Day, the issue quickly became mired in politics. Democratic leaders of the legislature rejected a special session and accused Republicans of grandstanding.

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers gathered outside the Capitol, urging Lamont and his fellow Democrats to take another look at record state budget surpluses and billions in federal pandemic aid. Connecticut can spend more on heating assistance programs this winter, they said.

“For the governor and the Democrats to suggest that we should take a wait-and-see attitude and put people into a crisis is a dereliction of their responsibilities to meet the needs of the public,” said House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford.

Lamont said that if winter temperatures were low “and we have a real need,” he and the legislature could add money in the 2023 legislative session set to begin in January. A little more than $80 million is what has been available in the past and will last through the end of the year, the governor said.

“If we find toward the end of this year that temperatures are low and we have real need, we’ll be able to do regular session and do some additional resources as needed,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. said in an emailed statement that Republicans have not proposed a budget in four years and “only seem interested in budgets during election season.”

Looney and Duff did not directly address Republican proposals about how to allocate federal heating assistance funding. They said they hope the federal government will “infuse this program with more funding.” Additional federal money is possible with a proposal for as much as $200 million in emergency spending.

State Senate Republican leader Kevin Kelly of Stratford rejected that. Connecticut Democrats, he said, are “waiting on dysfunctional Washington to help bail them out,” with both houses of Congress narrowly controlled by Democrats, though home heating aid was cut by federal officials, to $79 million from $83 million, he said.

It was the second time this week that Democrats and Republicans clashed over how to allocate federal money on home heating aid for low-income residents. Republican members of three legislative committees proposed Monday to increase to $191.5 million low-income heating assistance from $79.2 million offered by Lamont. Democrats approved the governor’s proposal with a “summary rejection” of the GOP alternative, Candelora said.

“It’s something that the Democrats could have fixed on Monday but procedurally chose to block that amendment on statutory grounds,” he said.

Democrats said the Republican plan was unlawful because legislative committees do not have legal authority to shift funding in budgets approved by the General Assembly and signed into law by the governor.

Nearly 97,000 low-income Connecticut residents, up from 81,000 in 2019, qualify for federal heating help. Financial aid increased last year and in 2020 with federal pandemic money that’s no longer available, leading to budget cuts proposed by Lamont and approved by legislative Democrats.

Federal money for the government’s home heating program is down from $140.1 million last year due to pandemic aid that’s no longer available. State budget director Jeffrey Beckham told lawmakers reducing assistance is “never easy,” but must align with available funding.

With elections less than eight weeks away, Candelora said legislative sessions have been called in previous election years. He cited a police accountability bill enacted in July 2020.

The demand for government aid is rising as energy prices skyrocket. Natural gas inventories have dropped as consumers use increasing amounts of electricity for air conditioning during longer hot spells this summer, and markets are adjusting to the destabilizing impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Domestic demand for energy has spiked as Europe, which is struggling to make up for flows of energy interrupted by Russia, looks for new sources of natural gas.

Staff writer Kenneth R. Gosselin contributed to this report from Windsor Locks. Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.