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Home > ADVOCACY > Where We Stand > Tax Exemption Repeal - ESCOs

April 6, 2010

Hon. Dennis Gabryszak (sent to all members of the WNY State Assembly delegation)
New York State Assembly
920 Legislative Office Bldg.
Albany, NY 12248

Dear Assemblymember Gabryszak:

On behalf of the 2,500 employer members of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, I urge your opposition to A.9710-B Part (P), the proposed repeal of Section 1105-c of NYS Tax Law, which currently provides an exemption from sales and compensating use taxes on the transportation, transmission, and distribution of gas and electricity to New York State customers. Eliminating this tax exemption for energy service companies (ESCOs) is the equivalent of levying $150 million in new state-level taxes on electric and gas purchases. We need your leadership to protect the state’s already overburdened taxpayers by working to eliminate this proposal from the Assembly’s Budget Resolution. 

Staggering energy costs are one of the many factors that make New York one of the country’s least favorable states in which to do business. According to the Public Policy Institute, New Yorkers already pay the third highest gas and electric rates in the country and this proposal, if enacted, would further increase rates for both commercial and residential customers by 8.375% and 4.375%, respectively. Currently, the state’s exemption of sales tax mitigates some of the negative effects New York’s energy service companies endure as result of our state’s rapidly increasing tax burden. If the exemption is repealed, ESCOs across the state will be forced to pass on the increased cost to their residential and commercial customers, at a time when they can least afford it.

The solution is clear: New York State must cut the size and cost of government. It’s time to stop bleeding New York’s employers dry in an attempt to find money to finance Albany’s overspending. I urge your opposition to Part (P) of A.9710-B so that New York’s energy service companies can remain a vital part of our state’s economy.

Sincerely,

Andrew J. Rudnick

cc.     Governor David Paterson
          WNY State Senate delegation