#Dems in Albany eyeing yet another $15B tax hike — to be hidden in fuel costs

Emboldened by the $4 billion-a-year tax hike they passed in April, Democratic lawmakers in Albany now want to suck $15 billion a year more from New Yorkers — in a way that many will never even know what hit them.

The “Climate and Community Investment Act” now making its way through the Legislature would charge fossil-fuel companies $55 for every ton of greenhouse gases their products produce next year, with the tax gradually rising to hit as much as $15 billion annually.

The fees would boost the cost of gasoline and home heating fuel, with consumers eating much of the increase — without many not even knowing why their costs keep rising.

It’s no small potatoes: The charges work out to 55 cents a gallon at the gas pump, bringing the state’s gasoline tax to nearly $1 a gallon — more than double the rate now and half again the tax in any other state. Home heating costs could soar a whopping 25 percent.

Some of the revenue would go to low- and moderate-income New Yorkers as rebates to offset the tax, but more than a third would be directed at “environmental justice” and another third for “green energy” projects.

Reality check: Spending in those categories won’t be driven by any real environmentalist principle; it’ll be pork and giveaways to the connected, dressed up to look green. That’s how New York state government rolls.

And get this: None of the new funds could be used for “police, prisons or related infrastructure,” since New York, the bill claims, is already “over-policed.” (Never mind its soaring murder rate.) No wonder Sen. Pam Helming (R-Ontario) calls it “a political ploy” whose real goal is to redistribute wealth.

Co-sponsors say it will force folks to cut down on driving and start “riding a bicycle or walking” instead, and too bad if that doesn’t work for you. “A car is a way of life here,” Sen. Joe Griffo (R-Rome) says of his district. “People need this to go to work.”

This is no serious effort to address climate change; it’s just an excuse to put more money in politicians’ hands so they have new favors to sell. Pray this con game of a bill . . . runs out of gas.