- New York State will waive $672 million in unpaid utility bills for nearly 500,000 people.
- Utility companies contributed a record $101 million to this round of pandemic debt relief.
- Governor Kathy Hochul also established an additional $200 million in electric bill discounts.
In what the office of Governor Kathy Hochul called “the largest utility customer financial assistance program in state history,” New York State will waive $672 million in unpaid utility bills during the epidemic era for nearly 500,000 people.
According to a statement from Governor’s office, the relief is anticipated to avert service terminations for more than 478,000 residential customers and nearly 56,000 small businesses, as well as prevent substantial credit downgrades.
All residential non-low income customers and small-business customers who have utility arrears will receive one-time credits under the debt-forgiveness programme of the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) through May 1, 2022.
According to the statement, utilities contributed a record $101 million to this round of pandemic debt relief after contributing $36 million to a programme with a similar budget of $567 million in June of last year to assist low-income clients in paying off past electric and gas bills.
Hochul also established an additional $200 million in electric bill discounts for over 800,000 New York state residents who earn less than $75,000 and are ineligible under the current discount programme. This pilot programme guarantees that its low-income participants will not pay more than 6% of their incomes on electricity.
Hochul stated last week that New York will launch a programme that sets an annual cap on pollution throughout its economy to cut emissions while hoping to bring in more than $1 billion annually during her 2023 State of the State address.
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