Solar One » Call your Assembly Member

Right now you can call your local Assembly Member and urge them to support A11202. Here’s how:

1. Identify your Assembly Member.

If you do not know who your Assembly Member is, you can identify them at the New York State Board of Elections Interactive website. Find the link below.
When you get to the website by clicking on the link below, just fill in your address and then click “Find.” Scroll down the right-hand margin of the page and local “Your Assembly District” Here you will find the name of your Assembly Member and a link to his/her official website.
Your Assembly Member’s website will include a ‘contact’ page. Here you can find and write down the phone number of your Assembly Member’s District Office.

2. Make the Call!
Call your Assembly Member’s District Office. When the staff member answers the phone:

- Identify yourself as a constituent who lives and votes in the assembly member’s District.

- In a friendly, positive tone tell the staff member that:

You are aware that a bill was recently introduced in the State Assembly that, if made into law, would allow new owners of solar electricity systems in New York City to claim a property tax abatement equal to 35% of the value of that system. The Assembly bill number is A11202.
(If they ask, the bill was sponsored by Assembly Member Farrell, and is waiting to be considered by the Ways and Means Committee that he chairs).
As a constituent who supports the development of more solar power in New York City, you urge the assembly member to support the passage of the solar property tax abatement legislation in the assembly, and to reach out to members of the WAYS and MEANS committee to express their support.

In the event that you are asked about the legislation or why you support it in some detail, here are some helpful talking points.

You are in favor of the legislation because in the coming years solar can play an important part in solving a number of our city’s most pressing energy challenges, including poor air quality and rising greenhouse gas emissions, rising electricity costs and frequent summer power disruptions.
The property tax abatement would make the cost of doing solar much less expensive in the five boroughs, and would therefore encourage more New Yorkers to invest in solar power in a short period, while permanently driving down the costs of investing in solar over the 5-year period of the abatement’s availability.
This is important because currently it is more expensive to invest in solar in New York than in any other part of the region, including neighboring New Jersey and Long Island.