Con Edison will gouge New York residents electric and gas bills for the next three years

Gothamist


Con Edison, the privately owned utility company that theoretically powers our city, has reportedly resolved to raise rates beginning January 1: Under the proposal, electric would go up 13 percent over the next three years, while gas would jump an astounding 25 percent. Hm well, at least you know you're getting solid and uniformly reliable service for all those extra dollars you're paying out; at least you know that this added, unavoidable expenditure will be Worth It in the long run!

Here is a breakdown of the average rate hikes, which would vary somewhat depending on customers' electricity and gas consumption. Most of you would be looking at a roughly 4.2% rise in 2020, followed by a 4.7% increase in 2021, and a 4% bump in your electric bills for 2022. As for gas, the average bill would jump 7.5% in 2020, 8.8% in 2021, and 7.2% in 2022.

Many people are displeased with this scheme, which stands to make already burdensome monthly payments significantly more expensive. AARP has already filed its grievances with the state Public Service Commission, pointing out that, as it stands, "tens of thousands" of customers find themselves unable to pay their utility bills and see their services cut every year.

"We think it’s an unfair rate hike,” AARP lobbyist Bill Ferris told the NY Daily News: “We have a problem in New York State with energy affordability.” With everything affordability, some would say!

Councilman Reynoso bill proposal raises fines on home illegal conversions and loft studios

Crains New York

Councilman Antonio Reynoso isn't interested in preaching to the converted. 

The Brooklyn lawmaker will introduce a bill next week that will jack up penalties on landlords who allow their buildings to be used for purposes contrary to their approved occupancy and zoning—a proposal aimed at illegal renovation of manufacturing buildings to loft residences and houses to multifamily residences. The legislation comes just months after the state Legislature voted to allow factory and warehouse buildings in swaths of Lower Manhattan, North Brooklyn and Western 
Queens inhabited continuously through 2015 and 2016 to become lawful dwellings under the 37-year-old Loft Law.

Critics complain that Albany's repeated expansions of the 1982 statute have tacitly encouraged people to illegally convert industrial spaces to residences, by signaling to them that the state will intervene to protect their homes. Reynoso himself raised fears that this has also contributed to the erosion of blue-collar jobs and businesses.
 

"Landlords are currently exploiting the weak protections in place for manufacturing spaces and see the low penalties for converting them to residential as the cost of doing business," the councilman said in a statement sent to Crain's. "We must ensure that protections are in place to preserve our manufacturing spaces and the workers who depend on them."

At present, the city fine for "immediately hazardous violations" is set at $1,000 to $25,000. Reynoso's bill would establish a new minimum penalty of $10,000.

Homeowner gets stuck with sidewalk repair bill

From NBC:

A New York City man was stuck with a charge for the sidewalk outside his home even though he was involved in a free repair program with the city. Lynda Baquero reports.

Big bill for sidewalk repair

From PIX11:

Patrica Appelt-Coraci and her 88-year-old mom Gladys both grew up in the house Gladys still owns on 77th Road in Flushing.

About a year ago, Gladys received a notice from the city that the sidewalk in front of the house needed to be repaired. Gladys let it go.

In New York, even if the city owns the public sidewalk in front of a home, it’s the homeowner who is responsible for maintaining it.

So when Gladys ignored the notice, the city stepped in to make the repairs. Then sent her the bill.

And what a bill it was!

"$362,000 and change," according to Patricia.

$362,077 to be exact.

Something the governor should do right now

From the Huffington Post:

Even after a reportedly mentally ill ex-prisoner, Ismaaiyl Brinkley shot New York City Police Department officers, Liu Wenjin and Raphael Ramos, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is refusing to sign a bill (S7818) that passed both houses and is on his desk right now.

The "Prisoners Mental Health Discharge Planning Bill" would require prison officials to make sure prisoners with mental illness who are being released are

• given a discharge plan,
• an appointment with a community program,
• and enough medications to last until the appointment.
• It also adds parole officials to the list of people who can refer someone with a mental illness to a hospital for evaluation.

Media reports say Ismaaiyl Brinsley who shot officers Liu Wenjin and Raphael Ramos was reported by his mom to be mentally ill, and reported himself to have been previously institutionalized. He was also previously incarcerated. While Brinsley was not a New York resident, this bill would help prevent violence by similarly situated people who do leave a New York prison. Cuomo should sign it today.

The bill was sponsored Senator Catharine Young and Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell. Supporters include Mental Illness Policy Org, the NYS Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of NYS

We also note that Mayor DeBlasio's Task Force on Mentally Ill at Riker's Island Jail failed to include expansion of Kendra's Law in their recommendations. Kendra's Law reduces homelessness, arrest, violence and incarceration by mentally ill ex-prisoners by keeping them in mandated and monitored community treatment.

Working hand-in-hand

From Capital New York:

In his first year as mayor, Bill de Blasio has signed into law every bill passed by the Council. It's only the second time in more than two decades a mayor went through a calendar year without having vetoed a single piece of legislation.

De Blasio enjoys a close relationship with the Council's speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, a like-minded, left-of-center Democrat who de Blasio personally lobbied members to elect in January.

Both sides of City Hall touted the close alliance.

"Whether it's extending paid-sick days to over a million more New Yorkers, successfully fighting to provide free lunch to hundreds of thousands of New York City middle-school students or being a national leader on immigration reform, the City Council is proud of its record of standing up for New Yorkers," said Robin Levine, a spokeswoman for Mark-Viverito.

Marti Adams, a spokeswoman for de Blasio offered a similar sentiment, listing shared priorities.

"From municipal IDs to paid sick leave to the slew of Vision Zero initiatives, we're proud of our legislative accomplishments to date," Adams said. "Mayor de Blasio will continue to work with the City Council on legislative actions aimed at improving the lives of everyday New Yorkers and tackling the very issues that New Yorkers elected him to address."

The Council still has one more scheduled meeting this year, but neither side of City Hall was aware of any imminent legislation that might result in a veto.

And this is something to brag about?

Lights out!

From CBS New York:

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but its workers are not always in their offices.

City Councilman Donovan Richards is proposing a bill that would require some unoccupied commercial buildings to go dark, WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman reported.

“The majority of emissions in New York City, 75 percent of them, come from buildings,” Richards said.

Richards said Paris recently passed a similar law.

“They only have 25 percent of the buildings we have, and they’re saving $260 million a year,” the councilman said.

There are currently no restrictions on lighting in New York.

It would also cut down on light pollution (why we can't see the stars at night) and bird strikes.

Glendale may get its own zip code

From the Queens Courier:

Is it Glendale or Ridgewood? You can’t tell from the ZIP code.

But the confusion may be a thing of the past if new legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, gets passed.

“For years, the residents of Glendale have sought to obtain a ZIP code for their community and now I join them in their fight,” Meng said. “Most areas in the borough are recognized by their neighborhood names, which provide a sense of identity and pride for local residents. That is true for Glendale, and it’s time for the Postal Service to accept and recognize that by creating a ZIP code that the community can finally call its own.”

The pleas for a Glendale ZIP code have been constant for over a decade but have continually fallen on deaf ears, according to published reports. The neighborhood currently shares its 11385 ZIP Code with Ridgewood.

Wills instroduces jail voter bill

From the Times Ledger:

Although jail detainees are kept behind bars, City Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) says their votes should not be.

Wills introduced a bill at last week’s Council meeting outlining a process for the city Department of Correction to administer absentee ballot applications ahead of elections, distribute them to eligible voters and then return their ballots to the city Board of Elections.

In New York, inmates convicted of misdemeanors and those awaiting judicial rulings on felony charges are eligible to vote. Close to 81 percent of those in the state prison system are detainees who have been charged but not convicted of crimes, and are therefore eligible to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice policy institute, at New York University’s School of Law.

“I encounter more constituents than I would like ... that if they were in Rikers or another jail, they didn’t know they could vote. I have had people come up to me and tell me their voter record is messed up and they were never locked up or they had a misdemeanor conviction,” Wills said.

Neither the BOE nor DOC responded to requests for comment on the bill and how voting currently works in city jails.

Landlords owe a heap of dough to NYC

From the NY Post:

The owners of 20,898 buildings owe New York City more than $555 million in back taxes, emergency repairs and water bills, according to the Department of Finance.

While the dollar figure enough to pay for pre-K, Mayor de Blasio’s pet project, it is actually 24 percent lower than in May 2013, according to the 60-day lien sale list released by city department to The Post.

The number of buildings 60 days or more behind on the tax and repair bills fell by 10 percent, the list showed.

The decline in the number of buildings in arrears and the amount owed to the city, experts said, is the result of the current feeding frenzy by the real estate industry to buy and redevelop properties.

That business activity is bringing fresh capital and investment to areas where previous owners were unable to keep up with debts and repairs on aging stock, the experts said.

The real amount owed to the city could be higher. The city typically culls properties with high lien-to-value ratios, or other issues, such as government-owned land, before producing the list.

Avella introduces bill that prohibits lobbyists from seeking office

From Bayside Patch:

State Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, has proposed a bill that would force former registered lobbyists to wait two years after leaving their profession before running for public office.

Under Avella’s bill, a lobbyist would not be able to run for any municipal or statewide elective office for a period of two years after termination of their service as a registered lobbyist.

“If elected officials and their staff are prohibited from working as registered lobbyists for a period of time after their term or employment has ended, why isn’t the reverse true?” Avella said. “Registered lobbyists who go directly from lobbying to running for elected office could have a distinct and unequal advantage when it comes to influence, access and money, among other things.”

The senator said the bill’s aim would be to eliminate the appearance of impropriety given the close relationship between lobbyists from former firms who continue to act as registered lobbyists and potentially newly elected officials.

Lever machines may make comeback this year

From the Daily News:

It’s now officially up to Gov. Cuomo to decide whether old-fashioned lever voting machines can be used in city elections this year.

Legislation granting the city Board of Elections authority to use the machines for this year’s primary and runoff elections was sent to Cuomo’s office Tuesday. He must decide by July 13th whether to sign or veto the measure, which was approved by the Senate and Assembly before the close of the legislative session last month.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said the governor is still reviewing the bill and has not made a decision on whether to sign it.

City elections officials have been pushing to use the older machines because of fears they would not be able to complete recounts in time if modern, optical scan voting machines were used for the primary or runoff. The optical scan machines rely on paper ballots for each voter, creating tremendous amounts of paper that would need to be hand-checked if a recount were required.

National grift

From the Daily News:

Nearly a million Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island residents were overcharged on their natural gas bills for two years — prompting investigators to freeze rates until 2015, state officials said.

The state’s Public Service Commission found National Grid charged customers around $2.90 extra a month in 2010 and 2011 - adding up to a $68.9 million payday for the utility company. The news was first reported by New York Power and Light, a new website watchdog.

National Grid stiffed about 980,000 of its users across three boroughs, said the commission, which figured out the overcharges after noticing “the company’s high earnings.”

The rate lockdown affects the “delivery” portion of customers’ gas bills. Prices for the gas itself can still increase, based on market forces.

Stormproofing our electric system

From the Queens Courier:

If a Sandy-esque storm were to come in the future, power company Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) wants to be prepared.

The electric company recently submitted plans that detail major investments to protect “critical equipment and customers from devastating storms” like Sandy, according to a Con Ed statement.

Long-term projects such as putting flood-proof equipment in low-lying areas, building higher flood walls around facilities, reinforcing overhead equipment and putting overhead lines underground to limit outages were proposed so that in the case that the Greater New York area is struck by another storm, Con Ed customers will be that much more protected.

However, the plans do not come without a price, and Con Ed estimates that price to be about $1 billion, which could be acquired through 2016, partly through federal funding. Also, Con Ed itself has committed $250 million to spend this year and next year on storm protection measures.

To provide the remaining initial funding for this storm-protection effort, Con Ed proposed one-year delivery rates for electric, gas and steam services. This would raise a Con Ed customer’s electric bill only by 3.3 percent and gas by 1.3 percent. Due to fuel cost saving efforts, steam bills would decrease.

Consumers may get whacked by regulatory decision

From the Times Ledger:

The state is demanding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission turn back a recent decision regarding how market rates for one of Astoria’s power plants are calculated on the grounds that the ruling could increase electricity bills across the state by up to $500 million.

“FERC is modifying the rule in a way that will artificially force [Astoria Energy II] to increase its offer price for capacity to a point where it will not be accepted,” the state Public Service Commission said in a press release.

The PSC’s request for a hearing was in response to FERC overturning last month a 2010 decision by the New York Independent System Operator. The latter agency determined that the costs of operating Astoria Energy II, a 550-megawatt plant, at 17-10 Steinway St. in Astoria’s Con Edison complex, were smaller than the predicted revenues the plant was projected to earn from the electrical market.

Astoria Energy II’s local competitors — US Power Generating’s Astoria Generating and TransCanada’s TC Ravenswood — had issued complaints against the ISO’s decision and FERC decided to have the ISO redetermine Astoria Energy II’s operating costs with changes to the test the PSC said would set up Astoria Energy II’s cost to be higher than the market rates.

The PSC estimated this could increase electricity bills for consumers both in New York City and upstate by $500 million in 2013.

Should Albany have term limits?

From the Daily News:

Assembly approval of a taxpayer-funded settlement in the Vito Lopez sexual harassment scandal has spurred a renewed push to limit how long a lawmaker can serve as a legislative leader or a committee chair. 

Sen. Joseph Griffo (R-Utica) and Assemblywoman Sandra Galef (D-Westchester) want to revisit an earlier bill that would cap at 12 years the time one could serve as Assembly speaker, Senate majority leader or a minority leader. Committee chairmanships would be restricted to eight-year stints. 

“It’s a good time to look it,” Galef said, noting that the allegations against Assemblyman Lopez have brought the issue to the public’s attention. “It could be that people look at it differently now.” 

The bill was previously bottled up in committee. 

The Senate already has a rule that limits a majority leader to eight years, which is four terms. The Assembly has no limits on leadership tenure.

New water meters are soaking some people

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The city’s new water meter readers are drowning the borough in undeserved bills, say angry Brooklynites who are now paying as much as eight times more for water than they did before.

The Bloomberg administration is slowly installing the automated devices, which read and transmit information to the city about water usage, across the five boroughs in a $252-million program launched in 2009 that was slated to save residents and businesses $90 million thanks to improved accuracy.

But residents say the new meter readers are causing their savings to go down the drain.

“I’ve been frustrated by it and I’m waiting for something to get done with it,” said Midwood resident Naomi Wolf, who claims she used to pay about $1,200 per year for water — before the city billed her $4,800 after installing automated meter readers at her home on Ocean Parkway last September. “I would prefer not to have to pay the city another $3,600 for something that didn’t take place. I use a normal amount of water like everybody else. We don’t have a sprinkler system. I barely even water the tiny patch of grass I have.”

Wolf is hardly alone.

Complaints have flooded Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s office from all five boroughs — but Brooklyn leads the way with 168 complaints about allegedly faulty readers, 42 percent of the citywide total.

Click photo for WPIX news report.

Donors abandon Johnny

From the NY Post:

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu’s campaign treasury “is turning into a legal-defense fund.”

Liu’s campaign has spent more than $100,000 on lawyers and legal fees so far this year — more than he raised in campaign contributions.

Liu only raised $82,305 from Jan. 1 through March 25.

And the new report shows that Liu spent more than twice what he raised during the period — $162,354.92.

The anemic fund-raising and ballooning legal bills come as Liu and his campaign operation face a federal criminal probe of their fund-raising activities.

Homeowner fined for unnecessary sidewalk repair

 
From the Queens Courier:

Biagi, a 62-year-old retired mechanic, told The Courier he was warned in 2004 by the Department of Transportation (DOT) to replace approximately 68-square-feet of sidewalk on his property — defective from two trees that the city recently removed, he said. Although Biagi said he had every plan to cooperate with the agency, he first requested for more information about the broken slabs. He said he did not hear back from them.

Then, city workers came out of the woodwork in 2009, he said, replacing nearly the entire sidewalk surrounding Biagi’s corner home — including close to 800-square-feet of pavement instead of the originally estimated 68.

The total cost the city billed to Biagi: $2,240.69.

Biagi said what angers him most is the fact that the DDC allegedly attached the expenses to his mortgage and took the remaining balance out of his real estate taxes.

Having health insurance and still going bankrupt

From the Daily News:

Big insurance companies and some greedy doctors are to blame for the growing number of New Yorkers whacked with ”surprise” medical bills, a state inquiry has found.

Department of Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky Wednesday released the results of his probe into the unanticipated bills that are slamming consumers.

"Simply put, surprise medical bills are causing some consumers to go broke," the report states.

His agency reviewed 2,000 complaints from 2011 and surveyed the 11 big insurers and HMOs who cover 95% of the New Yorkers who have health insurance.

The review found that patients who went out of their way to make sure the non-emergency treatment they sought was covered by their plan still wound up with bills from specialists — such as assistant surgeons, anesthesiologists and radiologists — who were outside their plan.

That’s because insurers often don’t make clear who will be involved and how much it will cost, the report found.

Also from the Daily News:

The fix here is pretty simple.

One, the Legislature must cap an individual patient’s responsibility for the cost of emergency care. A heart attack or late-stage cancer discovery should not bankrupt a family.

Two, nonemergency patients must be given reasonable notice if an out-of-network practitioner is scheduled on their case.

Three, the “small but significant number” of out-of-network doctors who the state says are inflating bills for treatment must feel the wrath of state watchdogs.

And — this is absolutely critical — insurance companies must be required to clearly disclose, up front, precisely what they will pay for out-of-network services so consumers can accurately compare health plans.