April 29, 2008
Albany -- Georgia Power is asking for what amounts to a three dollar a month increase for an average user, and now Mitchell EMC predicts a rate hike, too. With the cost for everyday bills on the rise, families wonder how they'll afford it all.
It seems everyone is feeling the pinch, from the grocery store where Melissa Hill says keeping her one and a half year old daughter Mosby fueled with milk is costly. "All your staples for sure have, I mean buying milk for a baby of course you need lots of it every week so you see it there and of course eggs, and bread, just everything really."
To the gas pump where a gallon has gone up 10 cents in the last week. "As you're driving around you find yourself looking at the different gas stations even if it's just a couple of cents, sometimes that appears to make a difference," Hill says.
Now fueling your home is also going up. Georgia Power is spending the next two days asking the Public Service Commission for a 3% rate increase to cover fuel costs.
"That price has doubled along with it getting the coal from where it's mined to our plants we're seeing where we've spent $85 million more this year to get the coal here," says Jay Smith, Albany Area Georgia Power Manager.
They're not alone Mitchell EMC told us they're conducting a cost of service study because their fuel prices have gone up and they're expecting an increase by years end and others are likely to follow.
"It's scary," Motorist Michelle Lilly says, "because it seems like everything is going up, nothing seems to be going down, and so you know three dollars here and there adds up when it's a bill here, a bill there."
For many it will likely mean higher bills and less money for the extras, like vacations. If approved, Georgia Power's increase goes into effect June first. Delta Airlines announced a $10 to $40 increase in ticket prices.
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