How City Halls tax-grabbing greed jacks NYCs electric bills sky-high

Can New York City pols flip a switch to make living here more affordable?Actually, it turns out, they can.NYC’s electric rates have become the highest of any major city in the eastern United States.The reason, as I explained in a new Manhattan Institute report, is that city government has treated its electric utility, Consolidated Edison, like a cash machine for almost a century.Under New York’s rate-setting rules, the city can create or increase taxes on electricity at will, with the money needed to cover those costs automatically rolled into Con Ed’s next approved rate hike.The cost of electricity supply is set by the marketplace, but delivery costs — where companies hold a local monopoly — are tightly controlled by the state.And New York City has exploited that to the max.The scheme starts with Con Edison’s property-tax bill, which totaled $2.1 billion last year on the electric system alone.That’s more than double what it was just a decade ago.If the city’s get from the grid had just kept pace with inflation, customers would be paying about $700 million less this year.And while many factors — such as the rising costs of equipment replacement — impact Con Ed’s property-tax bill, the money to pay it comes from the same place: Con Ed customers, who are none the wiser.As The Post reported last month, Con Ed is looking to show customers how much their bill is boosted by city property tax — an idea that Mayor Eric Adams’ administration didn’t love, and which Mayor Zohran Mamdani may actively resist.The property tax is just the first layer, though.Since the Great Depression — and ostensibly as a temporary “relief” measure — New York City has taxed its utility companies’ gross receipts.The higher the property tax, the higher the gross-receipts tax, and the higher the state-approved delivery rate.On top of this, the city charges its usual 4.5% sales tax on electricity delivery, as it does on other services.On its own, this would be th...