Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Another year, another late state budget. Lawmakers have reached the deadline but are nowhere near ready to make a deal.
State Senator Rob Ortt led a group of legislature Republicans in calling on Governor Hochul to provide relief from high utility bills. "We are continuing to call for the governor to release billions of dollars, certainly over a billion of dot billion dollars, which is currently held in a what I would call it a green slush fund. Now, these are funds that are collected currently on people's utility bills, their surcharges that we all pay that go into NYSERDA fund that is designed, quote, unquote, to implement the implementation of green programs," says Ortt. He also wants to see tax holidays on energy taxes. "Here in the state, we want to do the same thing for utility bills, because, again, the tax portion of most people's bill. Everyone looks at the delivery charge, or whatever it might their final number, but they forget that it's really the tax portion, at least in New York, that that accounts for between 40 and well over 50% of your bill are things like taxes and surcharges."
He says debate over clean energy mandates could delay passage of the budget in the Senate. "(Democrats) have shown that they are committed to the climate bill, the climate taxes, they are committed to the CLCPA and the green policies that they enacted back in 2019, and in spite of the evidence that it is increasing costs here in New York and will do continue to do so in the future," says Ortt. He notes the governor has shown at least some willingness. "Now, again, we'll see what she ultimately is able to get, and we'll see just how committed she is. Is she committed to real, substantive change, or is this an election year sort of strategy? Not unlike the congestion pricing piece, which she did a couple years ago that affected people in New York City and in the Hudson Valley and the MTA region, where she paused the congestion pricing in June, and then after the election, she immediately put it back on track to move forward, and that was an increased tax on people entering the city," notes Ortt.
Ortt says he's not optimistic for a quick resolution. "I would say, the end of the end of April or the beginning of May, and again, it's because my colleagues in the Senate and many Assembly,members don't want to make any changes, in spite of the fact that they keep saying it, talking about affordability, and yet, most people will say that the most crushing or the most pressing issue when it relates to affordability right now is their utility bills, and they just seem unwilling to do anything to to immediately, or even in the long term sense, lower energy costs," says Ortt.
Assemblymember Bill Conrad says there are five issues that are keeping the budget from being passed. "The big two happen to be around the CLCPA rollback possibility and the car insurance fraud discussion," says Conrad. "Those seem to be, I think, eating up a lot of the bandwidth right now in the state capital. There are other issues, like school, foundation, AIDS, electric busses, Medicaid, Medicare, a number of other issues as well. Bill issue and the credits were something that I would say were the fifth piece to the five issues that we're discussing right now."
Conrad agrees with Republicans on the need for utility bill relief. "A number of members of the Democratic caucus in the Assembly have asked for similar measures, especially with the growing energy crisis that's happening right now. And I don't know if it would put it to bed, but it certainly would keep the conversation going longer," adds Conrad.
Conrad believes the budget could be done in the next couple of weeks. "We're probably going to end up coming back on Tuesday and then do an extender and during that week, and I would hope that the following week we would have something done," predicts Conrad.
An extender was passed Tuesday.
Affordability, clean energy mandates among key sticking points
