Our current affordability crisis touches every single New Yorker, young and old.
President Donald Trump’s pledge to bring down prices gave way to his war with Iran, his tariff battles, his slashing of healthcare benefits, his wrong-sided energy policy—all have resulted in higher costs across the board for Americans.
Having to deal with this economic harm and the despair it is causing in meaningful ways is left to the individual states. Here in New York, we rolled up our sleeves and got right to work.
Since taking office in 2019, my colleagues in the Democratic Senate Majority and I have been laser-focused on affordability and helping residents. Our first major accomplishment was cutting the middle-class income tax rate in six of the last eight years, pushing the rate to a 70-year low. This action alone has benefited 8.3 million New Yorkers earning up to $323,000 for joint filers and saved them nearly $1 billion annually. Additionally, we enacted a permanent 2% percent property tax cap.
Our efforts to help residents and small business owners save money also included property tax exemptions for seniors, disabled veterans and first responders. The Enhanced STAR property tax relief program has received more than $2 billion in additional funding as well. In 2025, the enacted budget paid off the remaining $6 billion in pandemic-era federal Unemployment Trust Fund debt for small businesses statewide; and in recent years we have cut small business taxes twice.
It is no secret that the largest share of the taxes paid by property owners go to help fund our public schools. By increasing the state aid to schools in Senate District 40 by $375 million since 2019, we have been able to lift students up while lowering the burden on local taxpayers. Other key initiatives that have helped families financially, like expanded Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK), universal school meals and generous increases in the Empire State Child Credit, will continue to save residents money for years to come.
In the most recent budget, we further addressed affordability with $1 billion for POWER rebate checks to help with rising utility costs, made tip income tax-free, provided free insulin, instituted medical debt protection, and boosted emergency tenant assistance programs. We also committed to our municipalities an additional $250 million in clean water infrastructure funding, now at a record-level $750 million annually, which will also alleviate costs handed down to residents and business owners.
In fact, as Senator, I’ve worked to protect local taxpayers since 2019 with over $40 million in direct municipal grants, including $11 million for first responders, offsetting municipal equipment and building costs.
Because of our high utility rates, I keep coming back to solar energy projects for our municipalities. Our reliance on natural gas makes us incredibly vulnerable to sudden price shocks due to adverse weather or geopolitical conditions. However, research shows that if we deployed 20 gigawatts of distributed solar by 2035, in accordance with the goal I succeeded in incorporating in the FY 2026-27 state budget, it would deliver an estimated $1 billion in annual electric bill savings.
This is not pie in the sky. Indeed, at a time when gas turbines are on years-long back order, and few communities are clamoring to host new fossil fuel generation, it’s clear-eyed realism.
The fact is that distributed solar is the fastest manner in which to deploy a form of new electric generation. A key question, though: can we clear sufficient red tape to ensure that enough new solar is installed to bring ratepayers real relief?
As for the misinformation campaign behind the idea of reopening the Indian Point nuclear power facility, now being decommissioned, to “lower electric costs,” it ignores the decade-plus of rebuild and the tens of billions of dollars it would take to get online, all of which would be shouldered by ratepayers. Finally, the closure agreement at Indian Point requires all four signatories to approve a reopening—and two (the governor’s office and Westchester County) adamantly oppose nuclear power generation at the site.
The fight to make life more affordable in New York won’t be over anytime soon. We will see too many of our neighbors, friends and loved ones fall through the cracks economically without an all-out effort to rein in costs, provide help where possible and dedicate ourselves to cheaper energy alternatives.
Pete Harckham is running for re-election to the New York State Senate District 40.
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