{"id":3366,"date":"2026-08-17T11:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3366"},"modified":"2026-08-17T11:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:20:22","slug":"climate-disasters-and-the-cost-to-new-york-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/climate-disasters-and-the-cost-to-new-york-taxpayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Disasters and the Cost to New York Taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scenes of massive wildfires<\/a> and extreme heatwaves<\/a> in Europe, Canada<\/a>, and the Western United States<\/a> (among other areas<\/a>) are the most recent examples of a worsening climate. While here in New York we have been largely spared of these catastrophes \u2013 outside of unhealthy air quality days<\/a> and heat waves<\/a> \u2013 there is no doubt that global warming and the resulting climate catastrophes are, and will continue to be, a staple of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The costs to New Yorkers will go beyond the damage to the public\u2019s health and environment; it will hammer our wallets too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent report by the think tank Rebuild By Design<\/em><\/a> estimated the expected taxpayer costs from climate damages to New Yorkers. The report, Paying For Resilience in New York State<\/a>, examined the period 2015 through 2050. The Rebuild By Design<\/em> researchers developed an inventory of approximately 700 in-progress, recently completed, and planned adaptation federal, state, and local projects in New York State. The report only<\/em> examined public<\/em> sector initiatives and did not include costs to individuals, businesses, and the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the impact on New York taxpayers. The report found that New York State is projected to surpass half a trillion dollars<\/em> on infrastructure spending related to climate change by 2050. And that number is conservative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report broke down the expected costs by region. The New York City and Long Island metropolitan area will suffer the biggest costs due primarily to its coastline facing the ocean. Sea levels have risen by nearly one foot in the past century and are projected to increase another 1 to 2 feet by midcentury. Real estate and infrastructure are phenomenally expensive downstate, and the expected flooding (and other climate-related events) will result in a whopping price tag of about $400 billion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But upstate regions will not be spared. The Hudson Valley will face estimated costs of $7.7 billion. New York\u2019s Capital District will experience climate costs that exceed $860 million and the Mohawk River region will need to spend over $653 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report\u2019s authors stressed that their estimates are conservative. The report does not include future inflation, ongoing maintenance costs necessary to keep climate infrastructure functioning effectively and only examined projects whose costs exceed $1 million. And that doesn\u2019t even include the cost of future disasters \u2014 a cost that can easily reach hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, some of these costs are expected to be covered by the federal government. But a lot will not and that means more taxes, reduced services, or both \u2013 unless other funding streams are established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York has tried to establish a program that would require the world\u2019s largest fossil fuel companies to cover some of those costs. In late 2024, Governor Hochul signed a law<\/a> requiring those companies to help pay to repair damage caused by extreme weather. The rationale behind the law is that the burning oil, coal, and gas warm the planet, which is worsening storms and heat waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Called the Climate Change Superfund Act requires those companies to pay $75 billion over 25 years into an account for infrastructure repairs and upgrades, as well as recovery efforts after disasters. But in 2025, the Trump Administration challenged<\/a> the law effectively putting the interests of the immensely profitable<\/a> largest oil companies ahead of the interests of New York taxpayers. The President\u2019s effort was joined<\/a> by \u201cred\u201d states\u2019 Attorneys General and the oil industry<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That case is being heard<\/a> this summer. New Yorkers could soon learn if Big Oil will shoulder some of the costs from our worsening climate, or whether they will have to pay billions more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scenes of massive wildfires and extreme heatwaves in Europe, Canada, and the Western United States (among other areas) are the most recent examples of a worsening climate. While here in New York we have been largely spared of these catastrophes \u2013 outside of unhealthy air quality days and heat waves \u2013 there is no doubt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3367,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions\/3367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}