Every month, the same scene plays out on kitchen tables in New York. A family opens the gas and electricity bill, sees the figure rise again and begins to do the math: What can we cut this month?
They had no say in this bill, but they are the ones who are scrambling to pay it.
And far too many people can’t. As of this year, more than 1.2 million to 1.3 million New Yorkers are behind on their utility bills, amounting to between $1.8 billion and $2.3 billion. In New York and Westchester alone, near 16% of Con Edison customers ended the year 2024 with arrears, with almost $950 million of. It’s not a statistic. It’s a picture of underwater families, seniors on fixed incomes falling further behind, and small businesses with balances they can’t absorb.
Yet as New Yorkers struggle to keep up, Albany’s oversight of the system that produces these bills has barely budged.
In recent years, utility companies like Con Edison, National Grid, NYSEG and RG&E have repeatedly come back to ask for permission to raise rates. Time and time again, the Public Service Commission – a small group of Albany appointees – has approved these hikes. Your bills are increasing. Their guaranteed returns increase. And almost no one in state government is asking the basic questions on your behalf:
Were these increases justified? Have affordability protections been built in? If utilities over-collect or under-spend, does that money return to taxpayers or quietly improve their bottom line?
This is exactly where the state comptroller should step in – and it’s where the current comptroller has been asleep at the wheel.
The Comptroller is intended to be New York State’s independent fiscal watchdog. The office has the power to audit state agencies, authorities and programs, track how public funds flow and shine a light on decisions that most New Yorkers never see. When it comes to your energy bills, this should mean something simple: when rates rise, someone in state government should look into why.
But this is not happening in any real or lasting way.
We have not seen consistent, rigorous reviews of how the PSC evaluates rate hikes – whether affordability has been meaningfully considered, whether projected costs match actual spending, or whether the trend in approvals pushes bills higher than they should be. And we haven’t seen the Albany comptroller argue for stronger tools: explicit authority to review utility spending related to PSC-approved plans, transparency requirements for how taxpayer dollars are used, and mechanisms to ensure that when utilities overspend or underspend, the money goes back to those who paid for it.
Instead, the system continues to operate. Utilities file. The CPS votes. Bills are increasing. Debts are mounting. Families are falling behind. And the watchdog remains silent.
For New York workers, this isn’t an abstract regulatory issue: It’s a monthly pressure point. That’s an extra $25, $40, or $60 on top of rent, groceries, MetroCards, child care, and medication. Seniors feel it with fixed incomes. Immigrant families feel it in already overcrowded apartments. Small businesses feel it when their margins disappear.
In many parts of the state, energy bills have increased 25 to 35% since 2020. At the same time, new, busy users like data centers and AI facilities are driving up demand on the network – and too often, ordinary taxpayers end up subsidizing these costs while big companies negotiate discounts.
In this context, the controller’s job is simple: treat every dollar on your bill as if it were a public dollar that deserves protection.
This means:
- Review how the PSC evaluates rate increases and whether affordability is truly at the forefront.
- Track money from large energy and infrastructure deals in which the state provides money or incentives to see who actually benefits.
- Highlight models in which taxpayers assume risk while utilities and investors receive guaranteed returns.
- Tell the Legislature, in public, exactly what new tools are needed to protect New Yorkers – and fight to keep them safe.
This is what a taxpayer advocate would do.
This is what a cop on patrol this looks like in practice.
I’m running for State Comptroller because New Yorkers cannot afford more drift, more silence, or more rubber stamp right now. If utilities can increase your bill, an independent person should monitor them. If regulators can approve billions in higher costs, someone outside of that circle needs to audit their work and report to those who pay the price.
Yes, we need to modernize our network and plan responsibly for new technologies. But we can’t do it on the backs of households and small businesses already stretched to the breaking point – not without real oversight and accountability.
In this economy, every dollar on your bill is a test of whose side the state government is on.
New Yorkers deserve an alert watchdog – a monitor who treats their dollars as preciously as they do. This is the work I’m asking for. And if I’m given the chance to serve, that’s exactly how I will do it.
