Posted on 07/21/2014 7:06:35 PM PDT by lowbridge
The town of Somerset, Kentucky, opened a city-run filling station on Saturday, the Associated Press reported, offering gas to the public at below-market rates.
From the Associated Press:
The Somerset Fuel Center opened to the public selling regular unleaded gas for $3.36 a gallon, a bit lower than some nearby competitors. In the first three hours, about 75 customers fueled up at the no-frills stations, where there are no snacks, no repairs and only regular unleaded gas.
The mayor says the station was created in response to years of grumbling by townspeople about stubbornly high gas prices in Somerset, a city of about 11,000 near Lake Cumberland, a popular fishing and boating haven.
…
Four nearby stations in Somerset were selling regular unleaded for $3.39 a gallon Saturday. The prevailing price in town had been in the mid-$3.40s per gallon late in the week, said Melody Price, office manager at Somerset Fuel Center.
The city spent $200,000 to purchase the fuel storage facility a few years ago, the AP reported, and shelled out another $75,000 to convert the facility into a retail operation.
Some criticized the move, with one convenience store owner saying, ”They’ve used the taxpayer money that I have paid them over these years to do this, to be against us. I do not see how they can’t see that as socialism.”
But city leaders expressed commitment to the project.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
As I read the article, the local people aren't happy about it. It doesn't mean they aren't going to take advantage of it while it's there, though.
It's far different from the Federal Government, who are unaccountable and use coercion, doing such things - THAT is socialism.
It may be far from the Federal government doing it... but it is still socialism.
..........I just got back from a month in the Yukon Territory. Several times I passed gas pumps in the middle of nowhere that were just a gas pump! They were unmanned and no personnel were around.
Gas was $6.16 a gallon. Imagine, if your heart can stand it, filling up a 100 gallon truck tank!
No frills pumps are coming. No doubt about it.
Drive back into Alaska and gas was $4.11 a gallon. But, there’s free health care and long vacations and short work weeks and yadi, yadi in socialist paradise Canada.
it might.
It’s the other businesses that aren’t happy with it. If the City owned gas station is selling for cheaper, then a guy isn’t going to drive over to the Texaco and get a coke. And the Texaco is going to lose business. So he’ll have to lower his prices to compete.
disturbing
They used tax dollars to compete with private business, that people are forced to fund this is a form of coercion. is it not?
I would suggest those 4 gas stations in town to all announce at the next city council meeting that they are going out of business. I suspect that they PAY a lot of the local taxes.
Then they should stop selling gas and stop collecting taxes for the city and see what happens.
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