Passing the MTA Tax Buck

City electric bills are most likely headed up again come January — to pay not for juice used in homes and businesses, but for subway upgrades. That’s right: The rate plan filed Friday by the Department of Public Services and Con Ed includes extra fees to cover $240 million in subway work Gov. Cuomo ordered after faulty equipment helped spark 2017’s “Summer of Hell” commuter delays.

Con Ed did the job, improving subway electrical equipment. Yet there’s no good reason for the company to pay for it (except in a few instances where it was truly at fault).

The only reason to finance the work via Con Ed (and higher consumer bills) rather than have the MTA pay is to hide the reality from the public.

Oh, and divert public anger to the utility, rather than to the politicians who control the transit agency — above all, the gov.

Cuomo & Co. certainly have plenty of cause to want to hide the truth: The MTA, after all, already gets $17 billion a year from fares, tolls, surcharges, government subsidies and assorted other cash streams.

That includes taxes on payrolls, real-estate, taxi fares and petroleum — plus new ones on Internet sales and driving in Manhattan, as well as another real-estate levy. No wonder Cuomo opted to impose his MTA Summer of Hell tax via Con Ed.

“Con Ed was a convenient political scapegoat” when the gov wanted to share blame for the subway mess, notes Reinvent Albany’s John Kaehny. And despite the gov’s “chest-thumping” about Con Ed paying for fixes, it was always obvious customers would get stuck with the tab.

Then again, hiding taxes on a Con Ed bill is S.O.P. in these parts: Various taxes already account for a full third of the median invoice, Con Ed figures show. That helps explain why (per the Bureau of Labor Statistics) New York electric bills are up to 50 percent higher than the national average.

The hidden bailout also eases pressure on the MTA to contain costs — and may make it easier for the politicians to force the OK of overly generous new labor contracts. Far better to be honest with the public next time — and leave Con Ed out of it.