The New York State Senate passed legislation requiring utility companies to notify customers at least 45 days before any increase in service rates or charges.

Current law does not require gas and electric companies to notify customers of rate changes.

State Senator Rob Rolison, the bill's co-sponsor, believes the change will improve governmental transparency and reduce financial strain on consumers.

"In a region struggling with affordability, I'm working for you in Albany, taking a step in the right direction to bring transparency and accountability in our utility bills," Rolison said.

The bill now heads to the Assembly.

More than 15 different environmental, civic and faith-based groups joined several state lawmakers in Albany this week calling on the entire Legislature to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act.

The bill recently passed through both the Senate and Assembly environmental conservation committees.

It would require companies to reduce their overall packaging use, improve recyclability, fund recycling infrastructure and eliminate toxins in packaging materials.

"Whether it is municipalities and taxpayers burdened by the day-after-day-after-day collection and disposal of waste, or the nightmarish costs resulting from the scientifically proven health effects of this pollution, including cancers, asthma and endocrine disruption, packaging reduction and revamped recycling are the only ways we can turn this financial crisis around," state Sen. Pete Harckham said.

New York state’s 25 municipal solid waste landfills could be full within the next 15 years, according to the NYS Solid Waste Management Plan.

Former U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a long-serving New York Democrat who was the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee, died last Saturday, March 15. She was 87.

Lowey’s family said she died Saturday after battling metastatic breast cancer with the “same tenacity and strength that she fought throughout her 32-year career in Congress for women, children and families.”

The family said she died peacefully in her home in Harrison surrounded by her husband, children and grandchildren.

She was elected to Congress in 1988 and served until she opted to retire rather than seek reelection in 2020.