CA: State appliance rebate program starts briskly

SacBee ^ | 04/29/10 | Mark Glover

[TigerLikesRooster]

State appliance rebate program starts briskly

By Mark Glover

Published Thursday, Apr. 29, 2010

A week into California's Cash for Appliances program, thousands of rebate applications have poured in, retailers are reporting brisk sales and state officials are pleased with the so-far orderly process.

By Tuesday night, about 6,000 rebate applications had come in – relatively the tip of the iceberg, the first few forms filled out and mailed in after the program kicked off April 22.

"I'm expecting that to double now that the weekend mail is trickling in," said Amy Morgan, a spokeswoman for the California Energy Commission, which designed the state's program and is now administering it. "We're hearing that retailers were very busy over the weekend, so the numbers are going to go up when those end-of-day totals come in."

California's Cash for Appliances program is stoked with $35.2 million in federal stimulus funds. On April 22, the state began offering consumers mail-in rebates to swap their old refrigerators, washers and air conditioners for more energy-efficient models.

Rebates on approved Energy Star appliances are $200 for a refrigerator, $100 for a washer and up to $50 for a room air conditioner.

Under federal regulations, administrative costs cannot exceed 10 percent, or $3.52 million, meaning the state has a minimum of $31,680,000 available for rebates.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[originalbuckeye]

I WISH they would stop calling all these ‘Cash For’ programs Government rebates. It isn’t the Government’s money. IT IS TAXPAYER MONEY!

Sorry. Lying and lying liars make me shout.

[STONEWALLS]

...what’s this??...cash-for-clunker appliances?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Another ghost of Keynes.

[Thank You Rush]

How many jobs does this create?

[ConservativeWarrior]

When your state budget is in the crapper, it's not the time to subsidize home appliance purchases.

CA deserves everything coming to it. My only regret is that these morons will eventually be given federal money, aka my money.

[FreedomPoster]

I just applied to get some of my money back here in GA. I’m not sure of the details why, but we have one of these programs running. And we pay more than enough in taxes that I don’t feel the least bit guilty for applying.

[Vaduz]

Stimulus funds (tax dollars) to boost appliance sales.Oh the things one can do with numbers.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

So now we’re buying people new appliances in CA. Isn’t that nice? (But I’m a hypocrite because I participated in Cash for Clunkers. Just so you know.)

[originalbuckeye]

I understand that some will take the money as it is we all who are paying for it. I just wish the Government would stop with the phony largess and admit it's coming from the taxpayers. I don't blame Governors who took ‘Stimulus’ money. Every American taxpayer is paying for it, at least the 53% of us who pay income taxes.