SERINO HIGHLIGHTS BILL TO HELP WITH HOME HEATING OIL COSTS; URGES IMMEDIATE ACTION

ALBANY, NY—Senator Sue Serino today is highlighting legislation she co-sponsors that would provide homeowners with a significant rebate for home heating oil, the price of which has sky-rocketed in recent weeks. With only 3 scheduled days of the 2022 Legislative Session left, the Senator is urging the Legislature to take immediate action to provide critical financial relief to homeowners before adjourning.

“While the weather may be heating up, homeowners hard hit by inflation and rising prices on all basic necessities are still feeling the burn from excessive home heating oil prices from this past winter, and New York state must take immediate  action to provide critical relief,” said Senator Serino. “Right now, New Yorkers are struggling as prices rise on everything from food, to gas, to electricity, to fuel oil and more. It is unsustainable, and I can hear the desperation in our neighbors’ voices everywhere I go. Enough is enough. It is time for the Legislature to take real action to provide meaningful financial relief to hardworking New Yorkers who are fighting to keep their heads above water. Advancing this idea is one way we can do that, and I urge my colleagues to set politics aside and make this measure a reality.”

The bill, which is sponsored by Senator Alexis Weik and co-sponsored by Senator Serino, would establish a home heating oil rebate program that provide users with rebate check worth one dollar per gallon, up to a limit of five hundred gallons, of number two heating oil purchased between the dates of July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.

Senator Serino noted that the Legislature’s Supermajority did not go far enough in providing financial relief in this year’s state budget and argued that their work on this front is far from over saying, “When Albany’s Supermajority had the opportunity to fully, and immediately repeal the state’s onerous gas tax to provide meaningful relief, they chose instead to advance only a partial repeal that does not even start until June. Since that time, gas prices have only continued to rise steeply, topping $5.00 per gallon in some parts of the Hudson Valley. It is a slap in the face to New Yorkers to have a once-in-a-generation budget surplus and not use it to take basic steps like this to help them stay afloat. We absolutely cannot adjourn this session without advancing measures that help taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money.”