Sure, it hurts at the pump, but what about at the dinner plate or on the shelf?

All around Cayuga County, the prolonged gasoline price hike is hurting. With prices hovering around or exceeding $3 per gallon for several months, everyone from the local grocer to the town board is feeling the pinch.

On practically every level, it boils down to doing more with less.

“The county is no different than any other individual consumer,” county manager Wayne Allen said. “We have to have it, we have to provide those services.”

Buying in bulk helps a little, but the prices have remained essentially unpredictable. It has the potential to wreck the budget, which is formed based on past use.

“We didn't anticipate this increase,” Allen said. “You have to go year-to-year, you don't know what's going to happen.

“What we've seen is a gradual increase over months instead of years,” he said.

With a fleet of more than 200 vehicles, it's a big impact, but one that can be recovered from ... for a while. Unlike the Auburn Enlarged City School District, which limited the radius for field trip distances and took some other mileage saving measures about two years ago, there's not many practical measures to take when dealing in county business.

“We can't tell the highway crew in the middle of a snow storm to only plow three miles of road,” Allen said.

The temporary solution is to squeeze the money out of reserves and try to keep it off the tax bills. So far, the bottom line hasn't taken a drastic hit.

Smaller governments have also been successful at filling in gaps caused by fuel prices. However, on a broader scale there are other projects that suffer.

“Behind the scenes, the impact of oil has an effect on what we can do on our roads,” Brutus Town Supervisor James Hotaling said.

The highway department has paved less road with the money that's been budgeted to spare the levy.

“Maybe five years ago, we could do three times as much,” Hotaling said.

The practice works at least temporarily in the rural town, where many of the roads are lightly traveled.

“The whole thing I worry about is this doesn't come back to bite us,” Hotaling said. “Right now we've been able to hold the Band Aid together.”

The town has taken some proactive measures as well, accepting used oil to use as heat for its highway building and looking for more fuel efficient vehicles to add to its fleet.

“We're trying to look at that (fuel-efficient vehicles) as a more precautionary measure, where you might spend a little more up front, but save in the long run,” Hotaling said.

The impact of fuel prices trickles down to the village level, too.

“It's just one of those things you have to live with. The cost of doing business, I guess,” Moravia village Mayor Donald Myers said. “You have to have fuel.”

The village has been able to avert crisis so far. The only official measure taken has been to end vehicle idling for police and the village Department of Public Works.

Like many municipalities, the board has established no false hope the prices will ever drop significantly.

“The only hope we have is that it doesn't go much higher,” said Myers, noting the fickle nature of gas prices.

The public official has served staggered stints as mayor in his village, including a run during the energy crisis of the 1970s.

“There are some similarities,” Myers said. “This one seems to be more prolonged, though.”

Prices have remained relatively high for more than two years now. And with no significant drops in gas prices forecast for the short or long term, it promises to catch up with a retail industry that has shielded many customers from prices that rise as rapidly as they have at the pump.

“We have over time absorbed increases to keep costs down,” Wegmans spokeswoman Jo Natale said. “Prices have not gone up nearly as much as prices of other things because ultimately competition drives the market.”

There are few adjustments to make in distribution. The Rochester-based chain already draws the bulk of its produce from regional suppliers.

There are other factors to consider in the increased cost of doing business. The value of corn, for instance, has spiked in light of a rush to produce ethanol from the husk.

“It's energy costs, it's not just fuel,” Natale said.

Energy costs affect the cost of packaging, for example.

“This has been a long-term problem now,” Natale said. “It becomes the cost of doing business.

“There's inevitably a point when people will see the prices in all retail go up,” she said.

Even though the restaurant business is driven more by service than by price, Springside Inn manager Sean Lattimore said fuel prices have had an impact on his industry.

“It affects everything from eggs to milk to steaks,” he said. “It seems like any truck that delivers the stuff passes along the cost to us.”

And everything comes on wheels one way or another. Menu prices ideally changed once a year are now more frequent, sometimes twice a year or more, Lattimore said as an example.

“We try to offer more than just price,” Lattimore said, noting the competitive edge is sharpest on the service and atmosphere fronts.

Cayuga Community College assistant economics professor Bill Prosser can think of at least three instances where everyday expenses have gone up between 8 and 10 percent compared to a year ago. But, while gas is a key cog in Auburn's economic engine, there are several other factors making milk, pool chlorine and even that dental checkup more expensive.

While companies adjust profit margins and middle and upper classes alter cash flow, part-time workers and service industry employees get hit the hardest because of low, stagnant wages.

“I'm sure most people's incomes haven't gone up by that same percentage,” said Prosser. “These are the people that are definitely feeling the burden.”

At the college, it seems that more and more students are sharing textbooks to cope with a cost of living in large part based on what they pay to put gas in the tank, Prosser said.

But there are some bright spots to look at as well.

“Personally, I think the impact (of gas prices) on the economy overall is smaller than some people might think,” Prosser said. “What's really more important is if a producer feels they have the ability to raise prices they will.

“So competition has kind of kept inflation in check,” he said.

Auburn is also a community growing older and when retired people gain time, they spend more of it comparing prices to save money, Prosser said.

Staff writer Shane Liebler can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or shane.liebler@lee.net