Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces 2.5 Million More New York Households Are Eligible to Get Discounts on Utility Bills

Earlier today, Governor Hochul today launched a new statewide enrollment drive to help millions more New Yorkers get a monthly discount on their utility bills through the State’s Energy Affordability Program (EAP). While 1 million households statewide are already enrolled in the EAP, the State estimates that approximately 2.5 million more households are eligible to enroll for monthly discounts – including many that are now eligible due to Governor Hochul’s expansion of program eligibility. Depending on household income, the EAP can help New Yorkers save up to hundreds of dollars per year on utility costs, with discounts set to make a typical utility bill less than six percent of household income.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning everyone, please sit down. What a gorgeous day — spectacular, spectacular. So proud to be here with a member of my administration, Rory Christian, the chair and CEO of the New York Public Service Commission, let's give Rory a round of applause. Kevin Kiprovski, the director of public policy for LiveOn. Thank you, Kevin, for being here, we look forward to your remarks. And a real force of nature, someone who represents this district with such heart and commitment and we spent a lot of time together, and I consider her a friend. Our Assemblymember Grace Lee, a round of applause for her as well. Well, here we are at the Manny Cantor Center, a place that's been serving the people in this community since 1891, is that right? Okay, okay, I didn't check it out on AI, I actually read a sign. Just double checking AI — always need to do that. But this was established with a purpose, which was to lift up the people who had been mostly German, Jewish immigrants who came here with a dream to build a family, but many found themselves in poverty. Like many immigrants who arrived at that time and those who came later, those who still come today.

So it's – the purpose is why we're here is we're trying to find ways as a State to elevate people, lift people out of their circumstances and just give them a break, let them know they have a government that's responsive. So I'm proud to be here. I want to thank Rich Baum, who's also a driving force behind all the services that are provided here, and it's just a great team of individuals doing something that's really important. And one thing that's on my mind and especially as we're heading into the winter months, is the cost of utility bills. Yeah, a lot of nodding heads here. Everybody just dreads that bill when it shows up, when you get it electronically or you get it in the mail, it just gets worse and worse. And so yesterday we announced energy rebate checks that'll start going out to 8.2 million households across New York beginning next week. What does that mean? It means working with leaders like Grace Lee. The legislature and I worked to establish a fund — $1 billion. $1 billion fund that will go directly to families that are dealing with the high cost of bills and upwards of $200 per family. This will be at least a one time boost, one time boost. But today I'm here to talk about relief that shows up month after month.

Earlier this year, we dramatically expanded the Energy Affordability Program to help millions of New Yorkers afford their gas and electric bills. Now before this, this program was only limited to people with the lowest incomes, which is important, we take care of that, but I knew we could do more. I challenged my team to find another path to help people who are not living in poverty, but are still being squeezed by the high cost of living, the rent payments, groceries that just keep getting more expensive thanks to Donald Trump's tariffs. The cost of gasoline, which means whether you have a vehicle or not, you're paying for it because the trucks that are coming here to bring the supplies and the groceries are on diesel fuel, which is upwards of $6, $7 a gallon, highest in history.

So all of that price pressure gets passed on to our consumers. So focusing on those stress points but asking what we can do more on the energy space, I said “middle class families are feeling the pressure too – so let's open up this program to millions and millions of more New Yorkers who are now eligible.” So today, half of all households in the State of New York are eligible for extra help with their energy bills. And that includes a lot of working families who never thought a program like this would be available for them. Think of this, here in New York City, a family of four earning $162,000 or less would be able to qualify. If you live alone, you can earn up to $113,000 and still qualify. So that adds up to hundreds of dollars a year, sometimes $500 a year in additional support. That's just one more example of how we're putting money back in people's pockets. We already have 1 million New Yorkers enrolled, that's great. But now we're going to expand it so 2.5 million households are eligible here in the State of New York, and that is a good news story. That's real money, real money.

So we're launching an all-of-government approach to make sure people know about it. I appreciate your support, Assemblymember, and others in government but also organizations like this and Live On. And everybody, we need to get the word out about this program and how they do it. So if you receive benefits like SNAP, Medicaid or SSI, you're eligible, you just have to apply. But even if you don't get those benefits, don't assume you're not eligible. As I mentioned, the income threshold we just raised it dramatically, so you may be eligible as well. So I've directed all of my agencies, our Public Service Commission – again thank you, Chairman. All of our utilities to get the word out and our advocates to help spread the word. So you'll hear about it in countless ways. Of course online, mail, email and text as the enrollment events continue across the State. Now, this is just part of a larger effort we have to save New Yorkers money any way we can.

We've cut middle class taxes, we've expanded the child tax credit so a family with a child from birth to a four-year-old can get $1,000 every single year, $500 for older children. Auto insurance premiums should start coming down. We had some battles over that, but we put in place a mechanism to make sure that those rates are coming down because we are number one in the nation for auto insurance rates. And again, if you do not drive a vehicle yourself, and you take the subway, that's great. But the delivery trucks are paying high insurance premiums, and they're passing on the cost. So there always is a ripple down effect to these expenses. And childcare, making sure that we have universal affordable childcare, working closely with the mayor here and mayors and elected officials all across the State of New York, because we're just trying to find any way, any way possible that we can bring down these costs.

So if you've opened up your energy bill and just sort of winced, we all do. Now is the time to go to NY.gov/eap or call your utility and find out what you can do. And also this helps spread the word. If you have a neighbor, someone you know is struggling, someone who may not know how to actually apply for this. A senior citizen, a coworker, just pass it along, and we've got this money set aside. So we want to make sure people use it. This is for New Yorkers, and it's just part of an ongoing, continuous effort to help New Yorkers realize that this is the best place to live and raise a family and have a business. But we also understand the enormous pressures that families and businesses are under, and we're helping do whatever we can.

So I want to thank everyone for being here this morning. Everyone you know your job now, go get the word out, right? That's why you're sitting here — get the word out. So thank you very much, appreciate that. And let me call up Kevin Kiprovski, the director of public policy for LiveOn NY.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.