Tackling the high cost of living

Regarding “Bringing the high cost of living down to earth,” March 9:

So gasoline is up 27%, auto maintenance 26%, bank fees 25%, groceries 7% and rent 5%. You can add to those that trash is up 10%, gas 17%, water 7%, electricity 11%, telephone 50%, and in the property tax bill, unified school tax is up 26% and sanitation is up 6%.

So perhaps somebody can enlighten me as to how, with all these increases, the consumer price index is [up] only 3.9% in California.

Anthony R. Kingsley

Bellflower