MEA ‘Round Up’ program could add up to real change

On its face it just doesn’t seem right.

You sign up for, let’s say, a checking account. Your bank decides it has a new service that it wants to charge $9.95 a month for. If you don’t want it, just call them. Otherwise you’ll be charged.

So you’ve got to take time out of your day to look up the phone number, call the service center, deal with whatever phone trees or bureaucracies are in place there, all to avoid a monthly charge you never asked for.

It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

But what if instead of a bank it was your electrical utility? And what if instead of $9.95 a month they wanted to round up your bill to the nearest dollar and use that change to help a blind kid get a service dog?

Would you be OK with that?

The Matanuska Electric Association thinks you will be. And they’re working on legislation to help it happen.

We’re cautious about saying it, but we think it’s a good idea. For a number of reasons.

First is how little it will cost each of us. Yes, we know, there are people on a fixed income for whom even, at most, 99 cents more a month is unaffordable. But those people are few and far between. And MEA says that if a person decides he or she doesn’t like this program and wants out, that person will be refunded all the money he or she contributed. Just to reiterate, the person gets back not just one or two months’ worth of the money but all of it; even if he or she had been paying in for years.

Secondly, we like the kinds of projects MEA mentions as potential beneficiaries of this program. We have not yet met a special needs child who could afford a service dog and the training such an animal requires. MEA has also mentioned organizations like fire departments and police departments. Those guys need all the help they can get.

And lastly, it’s great to see an effort like this in which our money stays in the Valley to help our friends and neighbors.

But why does MEA have to set this charitable giving as the default? Why can’t they just put the word out and get members to sign up on their own? We can think of a few reasons.

There are thousands of day-to-day challenges that get in the way of this kind of thing. Even mundane things like cooking dinner or getting the kids to hockey practice easily take precedence over signing up to give a 50-cent donation when you pay your electric bill.

And then there’s the burnout factor. How many times are you stopped during the course of your day to be solicited for your signature on a petition or a donation for some organization whose purpose — or even name — is unclear?

We give when we can, but sometimes it’s easier to shut down; to say no to all these requests instead of evaluating each on its merits.

So here’s hoping that MEA gets this program off the ground and that it adds up to real change in our community. And if, for whatever reason, those results aren’t to our liking, we’ll be first in line to ask for our money back.