New York has delivered 3 million one-time energy rebate checks and plans to send another 5.2 million in the coming weeks, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday. The state began mailing the payments Sept. 21 and expects deliveries to continue through December.
Eligible residents do not need to apply or sign up. The state Tax Department is mailing the checks using tax-return information, and the amount depends on filing status and income.
Who receives a check
The Protecting Our Wallets Energy Rebate, or POWER, pays $200 to joint filers with income below $150,000 and $150 to joint filers with income from $150,000 to $300,000. Single filers with income below $150,000 receive $100. The announcement did not list a payment for single filers at or above that threshold.
The program was funded with a one-time $1 billion allocation in the enacted state budget. A total of 8.2 million New Yorkers are expected to receive checks, according to the governor's office.
Today's figure is a distribution update, not a new rebate program or a change in eligibility. Mailing began in September, and there is no individual delivery date for each eligible household in the announcement.
Hochul presented the checks as short-term help with household costs. The administration also pointed to other energy-affordability measures, but those are separate from this automatic one-time payment.
Other utility assistance remains separate
The governor's office said about 50,000 more households have submitted applications to utilities for the Energy Affordability Program since a mid-September enrollment push. That program provides monthly utility-bill discounts to about 1 million households statewide, and officials estimate about 2.5 million more may be eligible but not enrolled.
Unlike the rebate check, the monthly discount program involves applying through a utility. Residents looking for continuing bill assistance should not assume that receiving a POWER check enrolls them in that program.
The enacted budget also included utility-rate oversight changes described by the administration. They include restrictions on passing lobbying, political donations, public-relations campaigns and luxury travel costs to ratepayers; closer examination of proposed rate increases; and an energy-affordability index intended to show the household burden of utility rates.
For the immediate rebate, the next step is the mailing itself. Eligible New Yorkers who have not yet received a check are among those the state says it will continue to reach through December, without a new application.
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