Are Those $450 Heating Relief Checks Finally On the Way or What?

In some ways, this feels like being a kid again.

But not in the best way. Remember when you were a kid, and your parents would tell you that you were going on a big trip, but they wouldn't say exactly when or where, just that you were going to love it? By the end of the suspense building (because parents think kids love that for some reason) I always wished Mom just waited to tell me.

That's how it feels every time our government, be it the state or federal, tells us we have some kind of financial relief on the way. The want to tell us so bad, but then they hem, haw, and argue over how to do it or whatever. The process always takes forever. And again, by the end, I always wish they just waited to tell us when it was all sorted out.

Well, we have officially cleared hurdle #1.

As of yesterday, Gov. Mills signed off on the money deal that will provide Mainers with $450 heating assistance checks. If you're a dual income home making under $200,000 you'll get $900. According to WGME, this bill will also fortify home heating assistance programs, as well as short-term emergency housing for the homeless.

The checks will start being sent out mid-January, so Mainers could start seeing them in the next few weeks. So far this winter, heating hasn't been as much of an issue as one might expect, with the way above average temps we've been having for well, months. Warm fall turned right into warm winter. But it won't last forever.

Obviously, not everyone will be happy. There's plenty of people who think it should be more, or that single income families should get more. Other people think the whole thing is stupid simply because it came under the Mills administration. But you know the old saying as well as I do: You can please some of the people... You know the rest.