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Time to reflect: Increase in gas bill

By PAUL L. YOUNG St. George

Editor,
Rumor was going around immediately after Jon Huntsman Jr. lifted his hand from the Bible swearing him in as Governor of Utah, that he was going to fire Roger Ball, director of the state committee of consumer services. Mr. Ball has always had the attitude that any time public service utilities that serve the residents of Utah give their top management enormous, gigantic bonuses at the years end, they should show a little bit of common decency and not come right back in after the first of the year asking for another rate increase. This seems to be the common pattern of these utilities, Questar and PacifiCorp.
Case in point, my monthly Questar gas bill for the year 2003 was $47; for 2004, the monthly bill was $67; and the monthly bill for 2005 was $78. For the past three years Questar has taken from me my annual cost of living increase from Social Security. The same goes for all Questar customers who are drawing Social Security, and using Questar’s product to heat the house or just the water heater. The $5.50 they plan to return to me is a far cry from the $78 they intend to take from me.
In one of the state’s daily newspapers on Jan. 7 in the business section, the writer Dave Anderton writes, “The preconceived fees will amount to about $7 per year per customer.” I am filing this article for when the truth is finally revealed, in all probability, my Questar monthly bill will be increased by $7 per month.
I cannot help but wonder after this last increase was awarded to Questar, how much money did these public utilities contribute to the Governor’s campaign fund?

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