Food Prices Set To Spike As Gas Prices Continue To Rise

TRISTATE - The severe drought is expected to send food prices soaring in the weeks to come and the price you pay for gas is already going up.

The drought gripping the Tri-State is the same drought blamed for killing the majority of the nation's corn crop this year.

Evansville resident Kaleb Zeller walks to an Evansville grocery store to get a few things to eat. Zeller is on disability and money is tight. "I'm pinching those pennies and, what I have here, has to last for 3 or 4 days for me."

Zeller isn't alone. With so many out of work and the economy still in a slump, fear is spreading as prices rise. Economist Tim Mahoney tells Eyewitness News, "The price you're paying now is going to be pretty low compared to the price you'll be paying six months from now as a supplier."

And suppliers will have to pass those costs to you, the consumer. Mahoney says the fighting in Washington isn't helping boost consumer confidence. "They're focusing on he said or he said this, back and fourth, and some of the issues are just sort of on the back burner. They're almost forgotten and that's too bad. It really is."

The worst part is, the price you'll pay for food and gas is driven by the global financial markets and, according to Mahoney, "There's very very little that anybody can really do about it."

But Indiana democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg says putting Hoosiers back to work will help. He wants to see the wind turbines in parts of Indiana to be made in state. "Those blades are made of an aluminum composite material. They come from western Europe. Why aren't we making them over at Alcoa? Why is the methane and natural gas not pumped all the time in Indiana steel casting? Those wind turbines ought to be held up by Indiana steel."

Gregg also says suspending the state's sales tax on gas will help save Hoosier drivers money at the pump. But Zeller is fearful of that plan. "If the state suffers than people like myself, it hits us too, the ones that are on disability because that's government money."

But Gregg says by doing efficiency audits, the state can recover millions if not billions of dollars in unclaimed money. That money, Gregg says, can be used to cover the lost revenue the state would suffer under the plan.

"If you throw every sales tax penny on that $4 a gallon gas or that $3 a gallon gas in a jar, come December 1, regardless of how much you drive, you'll have enough has to drive for 3 and a half weeks so that's a big savings."

Gregg is running against republican Mike Pence this November.