MOUNT VERNON — Americans are beginning to receive their economic stimulus checks from the IRS, and, with rising gasoline and food prices, the checks are a much-needed financial boost.
Do you already have plans for your economic stimulus check?
| Options | Percentage | Votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes |
| 195 | |||
| No |
| 73 | Total Votes: 268 |
The checks are meant to stimulate the sluggish U.S. economy but many taxpayers are planning to save the money or use it to pay down bills and not to make purchases. And a handful of Knox County residents question whether the rebate checks will really help the economy in the long-term.
Carol Riley of Mount Vernon said she plans to use her rebate check to pay down bills and save a bit, but, she does not plan to make any purchases with it.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea because of the way the economy is,” she said, when asked whether she thinks the stimulus checks will help the economy.
Riley said she thinks people earning minimum wage are the ones who are the most in need of the rebate checks, adding that they are probably worse off than they were before the minimum wage was raised.
Gary Mains of Centerburg said he plans to pay bills and has no specific purchase in mind.
“I don’t know if [the rebate checks] will help the economy or not,” he said. “I’m not an economist so I wouldn’t even want to venture a guess.”
Betty Grant of Fredericktown said she plans to use the money from her rebate check toward the purchase of a new refrigerator, but added that the check, by itself, won’t pay for it all. She said she is on Social Security and will have to use some of her own funds to buy it.
“I don’t know if (the rebate checks) are enough to help the economy,” she said. “With the price of food and gas, I don’t know if it’ll help for long.”
Four out of 10 Americans think paying for gas is a serious problem, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Two out of 10 consider food prices to be a major problem. The lower the income, the more people consider gas and food prices a problem. About two-thirds of American households with less than $30,000 consider gas a large problem, compared to less than one-third of households with incomes of $75,000 or greater.
Riley said she has a van and regularly spends over $50 at the pump, when, before gas prices spiked, $30 would last a while.
“We’re so used to just taking off and going where we want,” she said. “Now we have to try to get everything in one trip.”
