New Yorkers are getting hit with a hidden tax hike that Mayor Mamdani wants you to ignore. A huge chunk of your electricity bill is actually paying for Consolidated Edison’s property taxes, not the power itself. This dysfunctional system has let City Hall shift massive tax burdens onto utility customers for decades.
According to a new analysis by the Manhattan Institute, the property tax alone now adds roughly 5.4 cents per kilowatt-hour to bills across the five boroughs. That translates to about $15 extra per month for a typical apartment and more than $32 for a single-family home. New York City residential rates exceed those of any other major eastern US city, which is hardly surprising, according to the New York Post.
The Hidden Tax Burden
ConEd customers are about to receive alarming information regarding their service. A remarkable 21% of the delivery fee for the typical client is directed to ConEd’s property tax obligation. The city’s unique tax structure allows mayors and the City Council to dump these costs onto utility systems, with Con Ed taking the biggest hit.
The property tax bill for Con Ed’s electric system surged from $1 billion in 2015 to over $2.1 billion last year. This jump happened with Albany’s full blessing. The taxable value of the system exploded due to rising component costs and the state’s 2019 climate law, which forced grid upgrades. But in many ways, those property values were just numbers on a page. The city chose year after year to squeeze more money out of the system, knowing ratepayers would foot the bill.
Why Rates Are So High
When it comes to packing such a huge property-tax load into consumer utility bills, no other major city rivals Gotham. The city kept pushing the value up, and the bill followed. This is another tax hike on New Yorkers, but it is buried deep inside your electricity statement. You pay for it every time you flip a switch.
The result is a system where the government benefits while the consumer suffers. The city council and the mayor get the revenue, but the working families in the outer boroughs see their monthly costs climb. This isn’t just bad policy; it is a deliberate shift of wealth from the people to the city coffers.
A Pattern of Shifting Costs
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes New Yorkers sick of the way this city is run. We are tired of paying for the city’s mistakes and its bloated tax appetite. When the city decides to raise taxes on a utility, they know exactly who will pay. It is the same old story of politicians doing whatever they want while regular folks pick up the tab.
This is opinion and commentary from the RapForMayor team.
