Mahopac families are in an affordability crisis. The cost of groceries, gas, housing and taxes keeps climbing, and now NYSEG wants to hit our community with massive electricity and gas rate increases.
For a lot of households here, this isn’t some abstract policy debate. It’s the difference between keeping up and falling behind.
I serve as a school board member, and I know firsthand how tempting it is to say, “Just raise taxes.” That’s always the easy answer. It’s also the wrong one. I’ve fought against tax increases because I believe families in Mahopac deserve leaders who make hard choices, not leaders who automatically reach for taxpayers’ wallets.
That’s exactly what we should be demanding from NYSEG.
We also need to be honest about how we got here. Albany Democrats pushed to close Indian Point with no real plan to replace that baseload power, and now families are paying the price for that reckless decision through higher and higher energy costs.
Instead of tightening their belts, finding real efficiencies, and making tough internal decisions, NYSEG is asking the state to approve huge rate hikes and expecting working families to just absorb the hit. For seniors on fixed incomes and small businesses already under pressure, that’s not manageable. It’s a breaking point.
Utilities aren’t just another business. They’re government regulated monopolies. People in Mahopac can’t shop around when the heat bill comes due or the lights are on the line. That’s why the Public Service Commission exists. Its job isn’t to rubber stamp whatever NYSEG asks for. Its job is to protect the public.
As a county legislator, I won’t just complain about this and move on. I’ll push for Putnam County to formally intervene in these rate cases, demand full transparency from NYSEG, and stand with other local governments to fight these hikes in front of the PSC. I’ll also support exploring options like community power programs that can give residents more control and more competition, not just higher bills and fewer choices.
If local school districts and town governments are expected to live within their means, then a massive utility company should be held to at least the same standard. Ratepayers shouldn’t be the automatic piggy bank for bloated costs, bad priorities, or policies that never seem to come with real accountability.
I oppose these rate hikes. Period. NYSEG needs to go back to the drawing board, make the hard decisions, and prove they’ve done everything possible before reaching deeper into the pockets of Mahopac families who are already stretched thin.
And the PSC needs to remember who it works for. Not the utility companies. Not the lobbyists. The people who live here.
Affordability isn’t a slogan in Mahopac. It’s a real, daily struggle. Our families deserve leaders who’ll fight for them, not pass the bill down the line and call it “necessary.”
Tanner McCracken is a trustee on the Mahopac Board of Education and is running for Putnam County Legislature.
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