- • Support the Toll Payer Protection Act
- • End Public Service Commission’s hidden fees and surcharges on energy
- • Establish accountability for the role state agencies play in the Affordability Crisis
With the Thruway Authority scheduled to expand its cashless tolling program and the Public Service Commission pursuing Clean Energy projects through new energy surcharges, New York lawmakers must protect its citizens from overstepping bureaucrats.
New York State’s tolling authorities have granted themselves the authority to attach ridiculous fees to the Toll By Mail program, enforceable by suspending vehicle registrations, with collection practices that would make the worst debt collectors blush. What’s worse, these fees of up to $100, apply to every crossing—not every bill. If your Toll By Mail gets lost in the mail, or New York State has the wrong address on file (because the DMV inexcusably fails to link car registration addresses to driver’s license addresses), a monthly commute could cost you more than $2,000 in additional fees with no clear legal recourse.
The Public Service Commission is required under law to ensure the delivery of reliable, low-cost energy to New Yorkers. Yet, under the Clean Energy Standard the PSC has violated its mandate and allocated resources—and ratepayers’ money—toward the development of the most expensive, least reliable energy while ignoring infrastructure that will be necessary to supplement the gaps in a wind-and-solar energy portfolio.