Governor Kathy Hochul made a stop in Rochester on Tuesday to talk about a number of items in the recently passed state budget that should benefit the Finger Lakes Region. The Governor also spoke with News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke about the $1 billion in state funding being used to send rebates to New Yorkers to help with rising utility rates.
A majority of those who live in New York fulltime and filed taxes in 2024 are eligible for what the state is calling “Protecting Our Wallets Energy Rebate” or POWER checks.
Joint filers with incomes below $150,000 a year will get a $200 check. Joint filers making between $150,000 and $300,000 will get $150 and single filers with incomes below $150,000 will get a $100 check.
Jennifer Lewke: “Most people you talk to in the community will say, thanks for the $100 but we have had to deal with astronomical increases on the supply and the delivery of energy and that doesn’t go very far…”
Governor Kathy Hochul: “It was a billion dollars we decided to dedicate from the budget which is quite substantial. We’ve done rebates before and (offered) support for families and people are happy to have anything. Contrary to what’s happening in Washington, where they have less money in their pockets because of the high cost of gasoline, at least 50% higher than it was in January before the war with Iran started, they see a very different approach with New York we’re trying to make life easier for people not harder.”
Jennifer Lewke: “At the same time the announcement came about the rebate checks we also got word from the Public Service Commission that they have agreed to allow RG&E and NYSEG to raise rates temporarily while they work on an even bigger rate case that is likely to bring even higher rates. What else can you and the state legislature do to help people afford their energy bills?
Governor Kathy Hochul: “Well, the original increase was 33%, (that’s) what they asked for, we said nope, we’re taking a step back here, we need to spend some time analyzing this but clearly, it will never be in that realm, not even close and so we’ve capped it at a lower, much lower amount, lower than inflation, the increase as required by law. They have to have a certain amount that they can secure but also, we’re very sensitive to this, we know people are really struggling. So, we also have a rate-payer protection program that is going to be holding utility companies more accountable for their extraneous expenses and try to help us understand where the money is going and also help them expand their capacity. I’m trying to do an all the above approach here in the state of New York to get us more supply. That includes doing nuclear in upstate New York where it is welcome and upstate New York has significant hydropower but also if I could expand the nuclear capability, more supply will drive down the cost.”
Jennifer Lewke: “Governor, the legislature approved a 1-year moratorium on data centers, where do you stand on that? Is that something you plan to sign?”
Governor Kathy Hochul: “Well, as is my practice, we don’t talk about any bill before I have a chance to analyze it, I have over 800 bills that are under review between now and the end of the year so, it’s definitely being reviewed but as I said when I announced my state of the state in January, I think any data center that’s here has to cover the cost of their own energy. We just talked about the high cost of energies, it’s not fair to ratepayers in our state to have to have higher costs because of a data center coming in so, even before the talk of a moratorium, I had put this out there saying, no, we’re not going to let this happen so, I will look closely at that bill but also we were talking about this long before then.”
NY Governor Kathy Hochul defends $1 billion POWER rebate checks amid rising RG&E and NYSEG utility rates WHEC.com.
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