Con Edison customers may soon be on the hook for $240 million worth of MTA repairs, according to a new agreement with the state.
The utility company submitted plans to increase electricity rates across Westchester and New York City by 15 percent come Jan 1. 2020 — and on Friday came to an agreement with Public Service Commission officials to move forward, Politico New York first reported.
The proposal cited $240 million in costs owing to transit system electrical repairs, although the rate hike must still be approved by the state agency.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a subway state of emergency following the 2017 “summer of hell” on the system, and blamed the disaster, in part, on Con Ed power failures. Afterwards, the PSC, which Cuomo controls, ordered the utility company to enact repairs.
The agency ultimately decided that Con Ed should foot the bill, too — pushing the cost of those repairs onto customers.
“It’s a three-year plan, so the rest is recovered in later years,” a Con Ed spokesman told The Post, acknowledging the $240 million price tag is pre-approved for the next rate hike as well.
John Kaehny of the good government group Reinvent Albany called the rate hike a “backdoor tax.”
“It shows up on everybody’s Con Ed bill. Everybody pays,” Kaehny told The Post.
But the PSC defended the decision, arguing the repairs were necessary to “protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.”
“The Department’s investigation found that power quality weaknesses of the Con Edison and MTA systems are inextricably intertwined and that any solution would need to focus jointly on both systems,” said PSC spokesman James Denn.
“That conclusion was confirmed by an independent engineering expert that worked cooperatively with the MTA, Con Edison and DPS on the power quality issues involving both systems, and costs related to the repair are being considered.”
But Ken Girardin, of the fiscally conservative Empire Center, argued lawmakers should be the ones stepping up.
“It’s absolutely bonkers, every state lawmaker should be concerned that the governor’s people, the PSC, are once again levying the tax and spending the proceeds without involving the legislature. There is no straight line to be drawn from the PSC to the MTA,” said Girarden.