Sen. Harding: Get rid of the “hidden tax” on CT electric bills

(CT Mirror)

Gov. Ned Lamont tried Wednesday to push election year concerns over recent electric rate increases into a larger conversation about Connecticut’s challenges to ensure a sufficient, stable and affordable flow of electricity in an era of increasing demand.

The ranking GOP members, joined by Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, continued after the meeting to publicly press for a pre-election special session to consider, among other things, using unallocated ARPA money, the federal aid provided by the American Rescue Plan Act.

“I have a hard time believing that you could find better priorities than to use it towards paying down some of these rates for the hardworking people of this state,” Harding said.

Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich, the ranking Senate Republican on the energy committee, said many of those public benefit expenses should be part of the state budget and examined annually.

Currently, he said, those costs are buried in electric bills as “a hidden tax.”

Fazio said he counted 41 separate programs funded by the public benefits portion of electric bills.

“Many of those programs should still exist. Some of them should be pared back. But many shouldn’t exist at all going forward,” Fazio said.

https://ctmirror.org/2024/09/04/ct-electric-rate-talks-lamont-legislators/