The Michigan Doiy-Friday, May 4, 1979--Page 9
Food prices decline but price of gas rises
(Continued from Page 3)
push fuel costs even higher in the mon- creased at a 14.1 per cent annual rate in said. As in the finished goods index,
retail prices in supermarkets in future ths ahead. the first three months of the year, the foodstuffs were up less than non-food
months, especially for pork, coffee, "THERE'S A wee ray of cheer from largest quarterly rise in 4%1 years. Con- prices.
fresh vegetables and poultry, Gramley the leveling of food prices, which had sumer prices increased at a 13'per cent The crude index showed an overall
said. been expected," said Commerce annual rate in the same period. drop of 0.4 per cent - the first decline
The prices of non-food goods rose 1.3 Department economist William Cox. At the intermediate level, prices rose since August 1977 - with foodstuff
per cent in April, the largest since Oc- "But energy prices have come along to 1.5 per cent in April. It was the largest down 0.3 per cent and non-food, 0.5 per
tober 1974, when the economy was bedevil us just as food did." jump since October 1974, when they cent.
sinking into recession. He added that although the April rose 2.2 per cent, government officials
Gasoline prices rose 4.4 per cent, "the wholesale price rise was the lowest sin-
ninth consecutive monthly increase in ce November, "we have to make a lot
excess of one per cent," Labor said, more progress than that before anyone
Gas prices at the wholesale level have is going to relax."
risen nearly ten per cent so far this year The wholesale price changes were
and in April stood 25 per cent ahead of reported in the Labor Department's $ $ U~
April 1978, figures indicated. Producer Price Index for finished
MEANWHILE, the prices of home- goods - those which are ready for sale Billing- 764-0550
heating oil jumped 6.7 per cent in April, to the consumer.
for a 12.9 per cent increase so far this THE PRODUCER Price Index repor- Circulation- 764-0558
year. ts prices at three levels: the wholesale
Petroleum-product prices have been - or finiShed goods - level, when Classifieds- 764-0557
on the rise since last fall because of goods are ready for sale to the final
domestic supply imbalance, the Iranian user; the intermediate level, where Display-764- 4
production cutback and higher charges they have received some processing;
from Mideast producers. and the crude level, where goods have NeWs and
President Carter's proposal to decon- not yet received any processing.
trol domestic crude oil prices likely will The department said the index in app 9
April stood at 211.2 per cent of the 1967 Spors- 764-0562
average of 100, meaning that goods
Enforcem ent priced at $100 then had increased in
price to $211.20 last month.
The price increase since April 1978
was 10.3 per cent. . -
WHOLESALE PRICES had in-
for underage
drinkers
(Continued from Page3)
some problems. There is nothing to
assist an officer if he is challenging
someone's ID."
However, Rep. Perry Bullard (D-Ann
Arbor), who is responsible for tpe
current civil fine structure, Wednesday
introduced a bill to the state legislature
to help clarify enforcement.
"THE LAW WE passed is adequate if
we back it up ... the bill sets forth a
procedure for the courts to follow," said
Bullard.
In addition, Ann Arbor Mayor Louis
Belcher, who said he is pleased with the
current law, added that the biggest
change from the recommendations
would be the standardization of the
misdemeanor penalty. But Belcher said
he has had no second thoughts about the
current law.
But Walter Keck, supervisor of the
Criminal Hearings and Appeal Section
of the Liquor Control Commission
(LCC), said, "The recommendations
are a way to uniformly enforce the laws
voted on by the people. The difficult
with the civil penalty is that the system
hasn't been used too much."
KECK ADDED that another problem
with the civil penalty system is
tracking people down who have been
caught breaking the drinking law in dif-
ferent geographical areas because
there's no central record keeping
system.
Rice said he hopes Bullard will assist
in getting the recommendations in-
stituted even though Bullard was
against the drinking law in the first
place. "We've given the chicken coop
over to the main fox."
But Bullard, who said he would argue
to modify the December law, ex-
plained, "It doesn't really matter what
the panel does, because the real
question will be decided by the
legislative process."
The Ann Arbor representative added,
"There's always room for compromise
in a legislative democratic process."
t
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