The City of Blakely in southwest Georgia has a population of a little over 5,000. It is a full-service city, in that it provides electricity, water/sewer, garbage and gas utilities to its citizens. Each month the City bills approximately 2,600 customer accounts. A few years ago, the City learned from a neighboring utility about the option to have a customer pay in advance for utility services, and have those services automatically shut off if there are no funds left in that customer’s account. Blakely first investigated the pre-paid utility option mainly for the electricity side of their services. However, they realized that it could conveniently incorporate all of the utility services the City provided. Could this option of pre-paying for utility services benefit their low-income customers and reduce shutoffs?
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