In an article printed by the Austin American Statesman, they claim Austin’s poorest 5% spend 45% of their income in electricity. Honestly? I would like to see the numbers on this. I know that I personally spend about $1800 a year on electricity, or $150 a month on average. In order for that to total 45% of my income, I would have to make less than $350 a month, or $4000 a year. That’s total household income. My house is fairly average, all electric, three bedrooms, two baths, and I have a roommate living with me who is not nearly as conscious about the power bill as I am. My house is by no means large, 1500 square feet, but I would assume it is larger then the city’s poorest. So my question is are there really households in Austin making less than $4000 a year? And that is assuming they use the same amount of electricity I do in a presumably smaller apartment. There is no way this is an accurate study. Using my numbers, which are by no means scientific, that leaves $2200 a year for any other expenses ($4000 x 55% that is left after the electric bill) or $183 a month. There is no way some one can survive on that alone, or be earning as much as they can. A part time job at minimum wage would earn you $7800 a year. If a newspaper is going to publish an article that is supposed to oppose a rate increase for electricity, they should give access to the data so people can see what “Austin’s poorest” are earning and spending on electricity. Also I would suggest figuring out who is going to cover the deficit in the electric utility’s budget if we tell them they cannot increase rates.
1 comment:
This posting has definitely caught my attention! As a newcomer to the homeowner society, I had no idea just how expensive utility bills could run. So I was not surprised to hear that Austin's poorest population spends on average forty-five percent of their income on the electric bill. It truly amazes me that that could or is almost half of somebody's salary. I cannot help but wonder if gas would be cheaper to run certain appliances compared to electricity. As I tried to do some investigation to whether there was truth or tale about gas being cheaper than electric, I came across CenterPoint Energy site. This site provides a calculator to provide you with information to what is the better option. However, since CenterPoint Energy is a natural gas company I imagine that there is some bias to their calculations.
For being Austin's prominent newspaper (Austin American Statesman), I am rather disappointed that there was no statistical information provided. I would like to know where that data came from and was the information obtained as a random sample. I find that to be a pretty modest statement "Austin's poorest" to be publishing without the reasoning behind the rest of the story. The information that was provided does not sooth the curious mind, but instead leaves many unanswered questions! Like many other fellow Americans, I want to see the proof behind something before I am willing to believe it! However, if it is true, then maybe the power companies could do something about their increasingly high rates.
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