Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring voice to my constituents who have been screwed over and ripped off by our utility company, Central Hudson. My colleagues here may never have heard of Central Hudson, but the people of the Hudson Valley know them all too well. Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the farmer in Ulster Park, New York, who received such a massive utility bill, $16,585, 17 times her normal bill, that she actually contemplated suicide. She described the debt, which put her at risk of losing her family farm, as a guillotine hanging over her head. I rise for the single mother in Kingston who told me she is afraid to cook for her four kids because turning on the stove means facing a gigantic gas bill. For the mayor of our city of Newburgh, who received a bill of $708,000 for a single month of electricity at his three-bedroom family home; for senior citizens on a fixed income who had their entire checking accounts wiped out by an autopay withdrawal. I could tell hundreds more of these stories and still not scratch the surface of this incredible corporate ineptitude. Mr. Speaker, we rely on our public utilities for a necessary service. They exist for the public good. They are built on a foundation of public trust. Central Hudson, and its CEO, Mr. Charles Freni, have irrevocably broken this trust. Since my calls for an investigation into Central Hudson's disastrous billing practices almost a year ago, we have received more than 11,000 formal complaints.…”