As if New York State didn’t have enough going against it with high taxes and fees that drive businesses elsewhere, there’s a new utility surcharge hike—and one that’s unevenly applied.

For those who may have missed it, the state budget that took effect July 1 included an increase in the utility bills surcharge from 0.33 percent to 2 percent. That’s tough on homeowners but especially tough for businesses hit even harder because they use more services from National Grid and National Fuel.

And for the “life is not fair” category—or perhaps the “New York is not fair” category—customers of the Long Island Power Authority, which serves parts of downstate New York, are paying a 1 percent surcharge, half the surcharge here. That discrepancy alone should not exist, never mind the effect that increased fees are having on this region’s businesses.

This newspaper recently reported that the 2 percent surcharge will cost one business an additional $500 a year on its National Fuel and National Grid bills, including monthly increases of $17 per month for electricity and $23 expected during the winter for natural gas.

The increase creates yet another hurdle for New York State and an even higher one for the western region. When a company such as the Cameron Compression Systems plant in Buffalo has to justify to corporate bosses in Houston any plans to do anything here, given the increasing costs of doing business in New York, that’s a problem. The plant has done stellar work in this area and continues to do so, but the argument for staying here is becoming harder to make.

Groups like Unshackle Upstate have noted the latest state budget included $8 billion in new taxes and fees, in addition to rising property taxes due to increasing local-government pension fund contributions. The only way around any of this is by doing something that the State Legislature is loath to do—and that is to cut spending.

State Sen. Michael H. Ranzenhofer, R-Amherst, has introduced legislation to have the surcharge hike repealed. He is joined by Assemblyman Steve Hawley in calling for that repeal. They are right. New York cannot afford to tax itself out of its own fiscal mess, as Ranzenhofer has said. And it is difficult to think that the surcharge would come close to closing an ever-widening state budget gap.

The surcharge is taking New York in the wrong direction, if the state wants to revitalize its economy. Making energy prices more competitive with the rest of the nation, as suggested by the Business Council, is a better idea.

The council makes the telling points that New York’s businesses pay electric power costs that are between 40 percent and 60 percent higher than the national average, that industrial natural gas prices are about 35 percent higher than the national average and that a large portion of these costs are due to state policies and taxes. On top of the state’s high energy commodity prices, it has added other cost burdens on energy consumers along the lines of environmental and energy policies that are justified but often expensive.

If the idea of a utility surcharge was to help close the budget gap, it will likely fall short by reducing the volume of business, and eventually the number of businesses, that pay other taxes.