By Mark Scheer
I just finished this story on gas bills. It was in our Sunday edition. The story attempted to show, in a little greater detail, what happens to all the money local customers pay to National Fuel each month.
It’s funny when you talk to people about such things.
I expected a stronger reaction.
Around here, National Fuel isn’t exactly a popular organization.
Just about everyone needs the company’s service, especially in the winter.
I don’t know a single person who is thrilled about having to pay the utility company each month.
I showed a bunch of people an illustration National Fuel sent us. It was a diagram of a dollar bill cut into five slices. Each slice represented an area where National Fuel directed its revenue. There is the gas, of course, and the company’s cost for maintaining its operations. Company earnings came in at 4.79 cents per dollar received. A sliver went to interest charges paid by the company to lending institutions.
The rest covered taxes.
A rather astounding 14.7 cents of every dollar sent to National Fuel is returned to either state or local governments in the form of sales and other taxes. It is the third largest portion of National Fuel’s “dollar bill.” It renders the utility company part tax collector. I didn’t have the time to ask the logical follow-up question: What does the state do with all that money?
When shown a copy of the diagram, several people expressed dismay over the tax portion. A lot of them had the same reaction.
“We’re taxed to death!”
“That’s New York for you.”
“All this state cares about is money.”
Once they settled down, several of them offered the same refrain: “What are you supposed to do about it?”
That’s it. That is the question. What can be done about it, any of it.
I wish I had answers for these people. Sadly, I don’t.
I could tell them what I tell family members and friends who often ask me the same thing.
You could complain directly to the state lawmakers responsible for the tax. You could do the same to the county and school district representatives who agreed to tack on fees of their own. You could continue to complain to them, even when they ignore you. You could vote them out of office come election day. You could support someone else’s candidacy. You could run for office yourself.
When you think about it, there’s a lot people can do.
Realistically, though, people won’t bother.
They’ve been trained to know better.
Experience tells them that their complaints rarely result in action from the higher-ups.
They know the state’s election system favors incumbents financed by political parties greased by corporations and special interests.
Most elections come down to the same lesser of the two evils — a Democrat running with support of the Democratic regime or a Republican supported by his or her masters in the GOP.
Change agents either don’t make it or don’t last.
Little people who don’t have government jobs pay all the bills.
When budgets balloon, taxes are increased or new fees are applied.
Working-class citizens pay.
The cycle repeats itself year after year.
It’s enough to make the average person want to give up and just quit.
So, they do.
They compromise.
And accept.
They pay taxes for reasons they do not fully understand.
The corruption is so widespread, the larceny so commonplace and the madness so pervasive that they are just overwhelmed by it all.
It’s easier to just let it go, live with it, accept the craziness for the natural order of things.
And so it goes in New York.
Oh well.
Like they say, what can you do?
