The Poor Tax: Desperately poor in Grand Marais

Dear New True,
I am writing on behalf of the many near-poor who live in Cook County of whom I am one.
We mange to scrape by or we used to. But the recent cost increases for food, gas, heat and electricity not to mention health care have left use reeling.
I just now paid my electric bill to Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission. I hope the check won't bounce. If my payment is late I am charged a fee of eight percent of the bill. Even in Shakespeare's time this would be considered usury.
I normally receive something from Energy Assistance due to my low income. Last year the amount was cut by more than half, due to the huge numbers of applicants and the refusal of the Bush and Pawlenty administrations to provide more relief.
No matter how much I receive, I don't get any credit from Grand Marais PUC to offset the eight percent penalty. This works out to be a Poor Tax. I noticed this year that if I don't manage to pay what the state considers sufficient they will cut off all of my electric service except for heat and refrigerator.
In my case that would mean I could not do my self-employment w0rk which is the only source of paying my bill. My computer, phone and even my water source require electricity.
Most of us poor are too shy to speak out and I am also. I won't sign my name to this mainly because the PUC could make me a target, a horrible warning who dares to challenge their usury.
But I am an elderly person who has not been able to find a living wage job in Cook County in the wake of Repug iniaitives that give the big tax breaks to the filthy rich.... all of my jobs here have been cut, cut, cut to increase corporate profits.
This is just another impact of a Republican onslaught against poor people and for rich people, I know. And yet, the straw that breaks the camel's back for me is the poor tax of eight percent of my electric bill which no way can I pay on time.
Everything costs a lot more now, a result of our remote place at the tip of the Arrowhead and the challenge of getting goods and services here but also and most importantly on account of the vicious policies of the US government that spends billions on war for oil but nothing on renewable energy.
Hannah Jumana Banana