Preparing For The TVA Increase

69 year-old Billy Ray Smith and his wife live in Cleveland on a fixed income.

You'd be generous if you called their retirement modest.

"Me and my wife together, we draw $1450 a month. By the time we pay our medical bills, light bills, water bills, [there's] very little we have left to live on," says Billy Ray Smith.

The news of the TVA rate hike is hard for the Smiths to swallow.

Their power bill is generally between $150 and $180.

The additional $15 or $20 dollars will have to come from somewhere.

"When that electric bill goes up 20 percent it's going to be a big hurt to us," says Smith. 

Households will deal with the increase and so will small businesses.

"Commercial is a whole different ball game. It will be much higher for us," says Cleveland's Garden Market owner Bill Hain.

Hain pays roughly $680 a month on electricty.

When the TVA's increase trickles down, he expects to cough up and extra $120.

"Sadly it ultimately ends up getting paid for by the consumer. If I absorb all costs, soon I'll be working for free, which is not why I come down here. "