EDITORIAL: Politicians are partially to blame for skyrocketing utility bills
By Michael Martucci, Publisher
Healthy businesses are the lifelines of thriving communities. From small “mom-and-pop” shops to large corporations, these businesses shape our neighborhoods, cities, and regions. They provide essential goods and services while also generating growth, innovation, and employment opportunities.
When it comes to a strong economy, our elected officials should engage in thoughtful leadership and promote growth and economic expansion. They must balance the needs of everyone while giving important consideration to appropriate, pro-business policies related to over-regulation and high taxes.
Unfortunately, we know New York’s business climate is among the worst in the nation. A recent Tax Foundation report ranked NY as having the 49th worst tax system out of 50 states.
Having served as State Senator, I am aware of problems some constituents had with Central Hudson. A poorly executed billing system rollout caused huge amounts of confusion for some of its customers. Many of those impacted were my constituents and my office helped get these people answers when the utility was swamped with phone calls from frustrated customers. Since then, it appears the company has taken meaningful steps to fix its problems, including inviting thousands of customers to meet with them at public open houses.
What is truly unfortunate is that local politicians have continued to hammer the utility with half-truths and overblown rhetoric and have failed to acknowledge the positive steps the company has taken. Worse, those same public officials have wrongly conflated the proposed Central Hudson rate increases with the billing issues that were previously reported and corrected, without acknowledging their culpability for the needed rate increases in the first place.
I came into office in 2021, not knowing nearly as much about utility operations as I do now, so I recognize why folks may be confused. Large portions of your utility bill are not increases driven by the utility, but taxes and mandates imposed by politicians. Some 25 percent of your current bill is costs and mandates from the State of New York as well as subsidies for developers of current projects paid by NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). Those costs are, according to credible, estimates, only going to grow as cost requirements from the state climate legislation and accompanying emissions reductions kick in and while I support many of the provisions of the state’s climate legislation, the indisputable fact is that the mandates set forth in those policies are costly. Who is it that gave us those policies? Many of the same local politicians flogging Central Hudson right now.
Attacking a utility company is like shooting fish in a barrel. It takes no great political skill to figure out that few consumers understand energy policy and even fewer know the nefarious role government plays in utility costs. All they know is that they get a bill, the bill is expensive, a nd the name on the top of the bill says Central Hudson Gas and Electric. Hence, it’s simple for politicians to ignore their role and blame the utility company all to score cheap points.
When I was in office, I took the time to understand the utility industry by talking to all sides. Having conversations with all stakeholders led to my intentional use of measured rhetoric, which was very important. We are not seeing that kind of measured rhetoric today and it is having very serious consequences. Some Central Hudson customers are now refusing to pay their legitimate utility bills and using the incendiary rhetoric of elected officials as an excuse, which is hurting ratepayers across the entire system.
The maintenance and building of electric and gas infrastructure is expensive. The costs don’t go down when someone refuses to pay, instead, the costs are spread out to those who are paying, leading to higher costs for everyone else.
Central Hudson is solely responsible for their billing fiasco, however, they have also taken significant steps to address and fix that problem and those actions deserve acknowledgment. The truth is that the cost increases in the utility sector that are leading to larger-than-normal rate increase requests are not driven by utility companies, but rather, by politicians and the policies they support.
Our local politicians must take some responsibility for their votes, decisions, and philosophies which are impacting our utility bills. It’s not fair to create a problem and then try to take credit for fixing it, which is precisely what many politicians are doing when it comes to skyrocketing utility costs. Don’t let them get away with it.
(Michael Martucci is the Publisher of Mid-Hudson News. He is a former New York State Senator and a successful businessman.)
