Governor Discusses Gas Tax in Fall River Living Room
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick proposes a rise in gas prices
By Jessica deSousa
freshman college student at BCC
March 12, 2009
I think we can all agree there has been a significant decrease in prices. After the crucial rise in gas last summer reaching almost $4.00 a gallon, we are relieved to see the price of the pump under $2.00 a gallon. Last Tuesday afternoon, the Kennedyd hosted the govenort, along with many other concerned South Coast residents who crowded into their Florence Street home for a descussion of Patrick's plan tohike gasoline prices by 19 cents per gallon. But it quickly became clear that many of those gathered did not see things teh govenor's way. The govenor explained that 6 cents of the 19 cent hike would go to projects outside of Boston and 75 percetn of the gas tax revenue will stay in the region where it was collected.
After paying nearly $4.00 a gallon for gas, do we deserve another rise in gas prices? As we can all assume, not many people were pleased after leaving this meeting. "I understand the economy is in rough shape, but raising the prices in gas are only making things worse for us", stated Nancy, a near by neighbor. This is very true. Most people had to find other ways to commute to work trying to save money from paying for gas. There was a great decrease in the number of families that took road trips last summer. "I know I will not be doing any traveling if gas prices are going to be rising again. I just can't afford to pay more than $2.00 a gallon." Jeffrey Canastra replied when I asked his view on the issue. Not many people around Fall River had a positive approach on the issue.
When a nearby Fall River gas station owner was asked his opinion on this issue, he was against the proposal in every way. He claims the rise would "eliminate the edge he has over other gas vendors nearby such as in Rhode Island". There, teh gas prices are approximately 7.5 cents higher than in Fall River. He claims to only make 2 cents profit on every gallon of gas sold now and had to cut employee pay by $2.00. This is not fair to the consumer who purchase the gas nor the vendors trying to be fair about the price they sell the gas at.
Hi Jessica:
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to hand this in, although late (penalties will apply.
So, you have a nice local angle on a state-wide story: I like that. May I assume you were there? Or if not you, then one of the people you spoke to was there. That's important for you to verify the accuracy of what happened, right? I like what your sources provide (remember to provide additional descriptors, like age, occupation that sort of thing, for all interviews.
I might suggest removing the first person "I" and just report the facts as you have them (that would mean remove some of the editorializing that you offer here about the gas tax--it's okay for your interviews to do that but not the reporter, right?).
Please note the various typos in this story.
Please Talk Back asap.
im sorry it was so late, i had trouble getting access to the internet. I was not there so i will have to go back adn edit that so the reader knows i was not present but it is second hand information. It is probably a good idea to remove the 'I' and jsut report the facts instead of always referring to I. I do have a lot of grammatical errors that need some attention too.
ReplyDelete