Over half of NYC residents say electric bills are shockingly high as historic heatwave scorches city: poll

New Yorkers’ electric bills are shocking!

Only about half of New York City voters said they can run air conditioning without financial worry amid the heatwave, while nearly the other half must ration use or don’t have AC at all, a new survey claims. 

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The Honan Strategy Group 5 Borough Barometer poll found that just 47% of Big Apple voters say they have air conditioning and can afford to run it comfortably. 

A nearly equal share — 44% — say they have AC but limit its use to keep their electric bills down.

The remaining 9% have no AC or gave no opinion.

“That is the quiet crisis hiding inside a seemingly routine question about summer plans,” said pollster Bradley Honan, president and CEO of the Honan Strategy Group.

“In a city where summer temperatures now routinely exceed 90 degrees, that means the majority of voters are making daily tradeoffs between their health and their utility bills.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani got roasted online for telling New Yorkers to set their air conditioners to a balmy 78 degrees as the Big Apple gets baked by the heat wave outside, with temperatures soaring to 100 degrees for the first time since 2012.

Meanwhile, New York’s sky-high electric bills have become a burning election year issue.

Property taxes and other levies imposed by New York lawmakers make up a substantial chunk of electric and gas bills paid to Con Edison and National Grid.

“I can cut your electric bill in half, day one, when I become governor,” said Nassau County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, who complained New York’s utility bills are 70% above the national average. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat seeking re-election to a second, four-year term, set aside $1 billion in the state budget approved last month to provide one-time energy rebate checks of up to $200 to more than 8 million New Yorkers to lessen the load.

The Honan Strategy group interviewed 614 voters via text from June 12-17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.96 percentage points.