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She’s selling a bill of goods.
Gov. Kathy Hochul crowed Tuesday that 2.5 million more New Yorkers are eligible for up to $500 a year in utility bill discounts – a savings her gubernatorial rival Bruce Blakeman waved off as “peanuts.”
Hochul and Blakeman squared off over the Empire State’s sky-high gas and electricity costs in dueling news conferences, with the Democratic governor encouraging households to sign up for the state’s expanded Energy Affordability Program.
“Today, half of all households in the state of New York are eligible for extra help with their energy bills,” she said at a Lower East Side community center.
But Blakeman, the Republican executive for Nassau County, dismissed the expanded program as a “big election-year scam.” He pledged to cut utility bills in half if elected.
“Kathy Hochul thinks we’re stupid!” he said at a near-simultaneous news conference in Howard Beach.
“Our utility rates are 70% higher – 70% higher! – than the national average and what is she giving us? Peanuts!”
New Yorkers’ steadily climbing gas and electricity bills guaranteed that utility costs would emerge as a top issue during the gubernatorial election.
When Hochul took office in 2021, a single-family home’s Con Edison bill stood at roughly $160 for 600 kilowatts of monthly use, data shows.
By 2025, the same bill climbed to nearly $219.
The bill for New York State Electric and Gas customers with similar homes and use stood at $80 in 2021, data shows. The cost rose to $147 last year.
The state’s residential electricity costs now stand at the third-highest in the nation, trailing only Hawaii and California.
As Hochul eyed re-election, she tried to soften the utility bill blow by first finagling up to $200 rebate checks for 8.2 million eligible households across the state.
The move to expand the Energy Affordability Program is another prong in Hochul’s bid to take action on utility costs.
The program giving a monthly discount on utility bills already had 1 million households enrolled, Hochul said. The expansion adds 2.5 million more households.
“Before this, this program was only limited to people at the lowest incomes, which is important, we take care of that,” she said. “But I knew we could do more.”
Blakeman contended he could lower utility rates by rolling back the state’s green energy initiatives.
“I can cut your utility bills in half,” he said. “Not give you a one-time $100 to $200 payment, but give you real utility bill relief.”
John Howard, former member and chair for the state Public Service Commission including as chairman, said the discount program Hochul touted is funded by other utility ratepayers, not the state budget.
“It’s covered by the ratepayers. The discounts are part of the utility rates,” Howard said.
“I support the program. But the money should come from the state budget, not from hidden fees and taxes on utility bills.”
— Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
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