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Here’s one “affordability” villain Mayor Zohran Mamdani doesn’t want you knowing about: City Hall.
Mamdani’s minions are trying to stop Con Edison from laying bare the taxes (well, some of them) hidden in your utility bill, because about a fifth of it is actually city property taxes. Mamdani’s minions are trying to stop Con Edison from laying bare the taxes (well, some of them) hidden in your utility bill, because about a fifth of it is actually city property taxes.
Add in state taxes, and you’re up to a full third of what you have to pay.
The state Public Service Commission recently adopted rules that let Con Ed break out many components of your bill; City Hall is now rushing to stop it because Mamdani ran on promises to lower your costs and this will make him look bad.
Nationally, local property taxes make up an average of just 12% of a utility bill.
But New York’s cash-hungry politicians have been steadily boosting what Con Ed has to pay by upping the assessed value of its properties — knowing state regulators would let it pass the costs on to ratepayers.
The utility’s property-tax bill soared 45% just from 2019 to 2024.
In the past, consumers could only blame Con Ed because the taxes were concealed within “base residential utility delivery rates.”
The PSC is letting that cat out the bag — though not every cat.
That is, the still-hidden costs include the huge outlays to comply with state green-energy mandates, some of which are upgrades that supposedly justify those soaring assessments.
Politicians love to bash the utilities — which usually are just doing what the pols compel them to do.
Last year, a sanctimonious Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered up an audit of “extravagant” Con Ed executive salaries amid double-digit rate hikes, huffing: “We will hold utilities accountable and ensure their focus is where it should be: delivering reliable, affordable and high-quality service.”
She knows full well that her costly green-energy schemes are the real villain, not salaries or state-regulated company profits.
Consumers have also lost out as Hochul and Gov. Andrew Cuomo before her rushed to close natural-gas power stations and the Indian Point nuclear plant as their insane Climate Action Plan replaces them with far more expensive (and less reliable) solar and offshore wind installations, not to mention those battery farms.
Adding insult to injury are her “peanuts” utility rebates of $100 to $200 this month, along with state energy credits for select households.
Bad enough that Hochul and Mamdani both want you kept in the dark about how they send your bills higher and higher.
Worse still that they also tag-team in pretending they’re fighting for affordability.