By Jen Chung in News on April 14, 2011 9:03 AM
Because of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruling that will impose an unnecessary 12% Con Ed rate hike (a typical $74 apartment bill would go up $12), Governor Andrew Cuomo is getting involved. The Post reports that he “will introduce legislation ‘within the next few days’ permitting the city to guarantee permanent property-tax abatements to local electric-generating companies, removing the basis for a little-noticed FERC decision that could hike electric rates by $500 million a year.” Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said, “This is a common-sense fix for a problem that could cost New York rate-payers hundreds of millions of dollars per year.”
This whole issue started because of power generating companies’ property-tax abatements: Back in 2008, the Legislature changed the NYC tax abatement program from “as of right” to “discretionary,” meaning the tax abatements could be repealed at any time
ut the city ended up guaranteeing the abatements, making power generating companies’ request for money to replace the tax abatement unnecessary.
