[AUDIO] The U.S. Mint struck the last penny back in November, and rounding up and rounding down are skills we’re all going to need soon. Dan Frizzell from the House Democratic Caucus has more.
Transcript:
BERG: “Folks are going to take to this just out of necessity. There’s not going to be any ability for a penny to be had or given or received. The retailer just does not have it to provide.” [:11]
That’s Representative April Berg. As chair of the House Finance Committee in Olympia, which is the panel that deals with raising revenue to pay for the state’s operating budget, Berg normally works on legislation dealing with millions or billions of dollars. Sponsoring a bill to establish ground rules for how we cope with the end of the penny was an unusual change of pace. Here’s Berg again.
BERG: “People might be a little bit cranky when they go to the grocery store and they think they’re owed two cents back in change and it’s rounded down to zero, but then people are going to be happy when they get an extra two cents when the retailer rounds up to five. And I did hear of someone who got rounded up to a dime because the retailer was out of nickels.” [:17]
Berg, a Democrat from Mill Creek, said the round-up/round-down solution will only apply to in-person cash transactions, and if someone has the right number of one-cent coins handy, paying the precise amount will remain an option. In Olympia, Dan Frizzell.