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| Rural incomes tanking | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 12 2008, 10:29 AM (413 Views) | |
| Petunia | Jun 12 2008, 10:29 AM Post #1 |
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Rural incomes tanking Study: 12-15% of take-home pay spent on gasoline By Michael White MWHITE@HERALD-LEADER.COM Pastor Doug Abner doesn't need a national survey to tell him that Clay Countians are feeling the pain of soaring gas prices. All he needs to see is the food bank run by his church, Manchester Community. May was the busiest month ever at the food bank, and Abner traces that demand to families who've been forced to choose between paying for gas and paying for food. "It's devastating us," he said of rising gas prices. Clay County is one of seven Eastern Kentucky counties that recently landed in the top 20 on a list no one wants to top. Clay, Harlan, Knox, Lee, Leslie, Martin and Owsley counties all sat near the top of a national survey that shows which counties pay the highest and lowest percentages of their income toward gasoline. Residents of the seven Kentucky counties are spending on average between 12.7 and 15.2 percent of their income on gas each month, according to the survey by the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). Nationwide, Americans are spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline, according to an article about the survey in the New York Times. Overall, the survey showed that in counties throughout Appalachia, the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting a squeeze on family budgets. "This crisis really impacts those who are at the economic margins of society, mostly in the rural areas and particularly parts of the Southeast," Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, told the Times. "These are people who have to decide between food and transportation." Using 2004 census data on incomes and average May gas prices from over 100,000 pump stations across the nation, OPIS calculated which parts of the nation are spending the biggest portion of their paychecks on gas. "We wanted to take an interesting new perspective," Rozell said in an interview with the Herald-Leader. He noted the survey more accurately depicts who is hurt most by recent gas hikes, as opposed to a traditional listing of gas prices from highest to lowest without further examining the data. The study's release was followed quickly by the national average price for a gallon of gas peaking at more than $4 over the weekend. Prices edged closer to $4 at many Kentucky stations, with some sightings of regular unleaded already at $4 or higher in Lexington on Monday. In Kentucky, Clay and Owsley counties ranked highest on the OPIS survey; both were in the top 5 nationally. Abner said he isn't surprised. About 60 percent of Clay County is already on some sort of government assistance, and more families are seeking help with every price increase at the pump. Most affected are commuters traveling from southeastern Kentucky as far away as Georgetown for factory and construction jobs, as well as families on fixed incomes, he said. Recent rises in food costs have done nothing to help the situation, and as both food and gasoline prices skyrocket some families must make tough choices. The food bank run by Manchester Community Church County partners with God's Pantry in Lexington. "We've been blessed; we don't really have a food shortage yet," Abner noted, "but we're helping minimum wage people at the food clinic. We never really had to do that." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find the lowest gas prices in the Lexington area on Kentucky.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New York Times contributed to this article. Reach Michael White at (859) 231-3282 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3282. http://www.kentucky.com/779/story/429243.html |
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| Petunia | Jun 12 2008, 10:34 AM Post #2 |
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Rural South Hit Hard By Rising Gas Prices The New York Times reported earlier this week that high gas prices are taking a serious toll on rural populations across the United States. This is particularly true in rural areas throughout the South, where poverty and low incomes are forcing families to choose between food and gas. In many rural areas, local restaurants and businesses are experiencing decreasing sales, and some are even closing down. Factories are cutting workers, while some workers are forced to quit their jobs because they cannot afford the longer commutes common in rural areas. According to the NYT article, Americans nationwide are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. By contrast, in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure reaches as high as 16 percent. A survey conducted by the Oil Price Information Service detailed that of the 13 counties where people spent 13 percent or more of their family income on gasoline, 5 were located in Mississippi, 4 were in Alabama, 3 were in Kentucky and 1 was in West Virginia. From a policy perspective, higher gas prices are often praised by public transportation advocates and environmentalists who see increasing prices as an opportunity to push for alternatives to U.S gas dependency. In fact, the U.S. Transportation Department reported last month that in March, Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles than in March 2007. In many urban areas in the United States soaring gas prices are convincing more people to take public transit, with subways, streetcars, trolleys and other light rail experiencing a 10.3 percent increase in ridership for the first quarter of the year, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Even major Southern cities, such as Atlanta, Memphis, and New Orleans saw double digit increases in public transit use. “Public transportation is a key part of the solution to decreasing greenhouse gases and meeting our national goal of energy independence. When more people ride public transportation, there are more reductions in carbon emissions and our country is less dependent on foreign oil,” said APTA president William W. Millar in a March 2007 press release. He explained that with prices topping $4 a gallon, “there is a greater urgency for higher federal funding to expand U.S. public transportation systems so Americans have an affordable transportation choice.” The lack of affordable alternative public transportation choices is acutely felt by people across the rural South. Little public transportation is available in many areas, and since jobs are often scarcer, longer commutes to farther-away job sites are common. Often workers have no choice but to drive more than 20 miles or more for work. Experts say that job scarcity, limited public transit, and the prevalence of less-fuel efficient vehicles such as older pickups, may combine to deepen the disparity between rural America and the rest of the country as gas prices continue to rise. As the NYT reported: Sociologists and economists who study rural poverty say the gasoline crisis in the rural South, if it persists, could accelerate population loss and decrease the tax base in some areas as more people move closer to urban manufacturing jobs. They warn that the high cost of driving makes low-wage labor even less attractive to workers, especially those who also have to pay for child care and can live off welfare and food stamps. "As gas prices rise, working less could be the economically rational choice,” said Tim Slack, a sociologist at Louisiana State University who studies rural poverty. “That would mean lower incomes for the poor and greater distance from the mainstream.” http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/200...-rising-gas.asp |
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| moss | Jun 16 2008, 12:58 PM Post #3 |
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Hello Petunia! :) I live 13 miles from a large city. Gas is a problem. A cashier was saying a farmer that use to come in to buy supplies three time a week comes only once. I don't see the farming and grazing activity as usual. One can drive country roads and not be bothered by combines and trackers on the roads. Where I live there has been alot of rain. Right now, haven't heard of farmers tanking, yet. |
| How do the craftiest do it? By misdirection! | |
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