Give Gov. Kathy Hochul points for chutzpah: Even as she mocks President Donald Trump’s promise of $5,000 for Americans if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, she herself is handing out $200 energy-bill rebates to New Yorkers, just weeks before the state’s gubernatorial elections.
Buying votes, it seems, is only OK when she does it.
Yet her checks, though smaller than Trump’s offer, are far worse than his, and not just because they’re actually happening; fact is, it’s her fault New York’s electric bills are so high that rebates are even needed.
This is the second straight year she’s showering New Yorkers with up to $200 per household right before they head to the polls.
She calls the $1 billion in bribes “Protecting Our Wallets Energy Rebates” — or “POWER” — in the hope they’ll “power” her re-election.
And these utility-rebate checks come on top of up to $500 in state Energy Affordability Program credits applied straight to monthly energy bills.
But don’t expect here to admit she helped drive up those bills in the first place.
Recall that Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo rushed to close fossil-fuel and nuclear plants before renewables were online and banned natural-gas pipelines and fracking.
They imposed a climate-change bill that cost billions (much of that passed on to the public) and boosted demand for electricity through electric-only mandates.
They hoped to replace reliable energy sources with costly, intermittent solar and offshore wind, which haven’t even materialized in any meaningful way.
On X, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman blasted Hochul’s “failed energy policies” for “making New York more expensive and putting our power supply at risk.”
The checks are an “election year gimmick that fails to fix the affordability crisis she created,” he railed, accurately.
Blakeman, by contrast, promises not to squeeze New Yorkers’ wallets any further or create the risk of blackouts just to satisfy green-energy loonies.
New Yorkers should be glad, of course, to get Hochul’s rebates — after all, it’s their money.
But don’t be blinded by them: Hochul is responsible New York’s high utility bills, and the rebates do little offset them.
And the trend will only get worse if she wins in November.
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