{"id":286381,"date":"2026-07-04T00:38:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/286381\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T00:38:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:38:32","slug":"over-half-of-nyc-residents-say-electric-bills-are-shockingly-high-as-heatwave-scorches-city-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/286381\/","title":{"rendered":"Over half of NYC residents say electric bills are shockingly high as heatwave scorches city: poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Yorkers\u2019 electric bills<\/a> are shocking!<\/p>\n

Only about half of New York City voters said they can run air conditioning without financial worry amid the heatwave<\/a>, while nearly the other half must ration use or don\u2019t have AC at all, a new survey claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

The Honan Strategy Group 5 Borough Barometer poll found that just 47% of Big Apple voters<\/a> say they have air conditioning and can afford to run it comfortably.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People try to stay cool during a heat wave in Bryant Park in Manhattan on Wednesday, July 1, 2026 in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Children try to stay cool in Bryant Park in Manhattan on Wednesday. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A nearly equal share \u2014 44% \u2014 say they have AC but limit its use to keep their electric bills down.<\/p>\n

The remaining 9% have no AC or gave no opinion.<\/p>\n

A woman sunbathes in Central Park during a heatwave in New York City, on July 1, 2026.\u00a0 AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A dog sits by a water fountain during a heatwave in New York City, on July 1, 2026. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the quiet crisis hiding inside a seemingly routine question about summer plans,\u201d said pollster Bradley Honan, president and CEO of the Honan Strategy Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> got roasted online for telling\u00a0New 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.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani got roasted online for telling\u00a0New Yorkers to set their air conditioners to a balmy 78 degrees as the Big Apple gets baked by the heat wave outside. Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, New York\u2019s sky-high electric bills have become a burning election year issue.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI can cut your electric bill in half, day one, when I become governor,\u201d said Nassau County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, who complained New York\u2019s utility bills are 70% above the national average.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People watch the New York City skyline from the Manhattan-South Brooklyn ferry during a heatwave in New York on July 1, 2026. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers\u2019 electric bills are shocking! Only about half of New York City voters said they can run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24789,1168,7442,4588,57,9,24,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-286381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-air-conditioning","tag-con-edison","tag-electricity","tag-heat-wave","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}