Senator George D. Maziarz (R-C, North Tonawanda) joined Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and members of the Senate Majority to unveil a plan to slash energy taxes by nearly a half-billion dollars, lowering energy costs and helping homeowners and businesses slash their heat bills by encouraging energy-saving improvements.

The Senate Majority plan is designed to provide fast relief to consumers from rising fuel bills and providing energy conservation incentives including a first-ever exemption from state and local taxes on energy-saving products like new furnaces, boilers, insulation and windows -- and encouraging the use of alternative-energy systems that use the sun or new technology like fuel cells -- to reduce heating bills long term.

Additionally, the plan would lower energy prices to make heating more affordable by eliminating the energy Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) for homeowners, and the plan would provide $100 million in new tax credits to help low-income New Yorkers pay for heat this winter.

The plan includes:

•Sales tax exemption for energy efficiency ($125 million) -- exempts from state and local sales tax all products designed to improve energy efficiency of existing homes, apartments and commercial and manufacturing businesses. These products include furnaces, boilers, insulation, weather stripping, new thermostats and alternative energy systems like solar heat and fuel cells. This break typically will reduce the cost of these improvements by eight percent, and includes a state reimbursement to local governments for their lost revenue;

•Repeal of residential Gross Receipts Tax ($250 million) -- the Senate Majority led the fight last year for repeal of the GRT energy tax for business and a partial reduction for homeowners. This proposal would include residential customers in the complete phase-out by 2005;

•Home Energy Assistance Tax (HEAT) Credit ($100 million) -- the Senate Majority proposes to use surplus government assistance funds available through TANF to help low-income New Yorkers pay their heating bills. The credit would be available through low-income New Yorkers' income tax returns and equal 25 percent of a family's state Earned Income Tax Credit, or $220 for an eligible family of four;

•Eliminate the Petroleum Business Tax on commercial heating fuels ($10 million) -- the state budget began in 1995 to lower the PBT on commercial heating fuel used in apartment buildings and commercial properties and usually passed on to consumers in the form of higher business costs. The Senate Majority proposes to eliminate the tax, currently 5 cents per gallon, completely.