Taking the “con” out of Con Edison

We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes

Famously said by Leona Helmsley; disgraced wife of real estate scion Harry/talented businesswoman — cum con artist — in her own right.

Tax dodging is, well, as American as obesity and the fat cat purveyors of said endeavors can be found among the ranks of billionaires; from too-much-yang energy, Elon Musk, to the ‘aw shucks I’m just an ordinary guy’, Warren Buffet.

Then, you have Big Business… and the bigger the business, it seems, the less forked over in the way of taxes. In a breezy report issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy — titled 55 Corporations Paid $0 in Federal Taxes on 2020 Profits — reading down the list of offenders one name does stand out and it’s a doozy.

Amid iconic brands like Nike and FedEx sits — yes, drum roll — Con Edison.

New Yorkers simply love to hate Con Edison and for good reason. There’s a surfeit of agita to go around when a new electric bill arrives (“how could we have used all that electricity?”) or after foul weather causes lengthy power interruptions (“I’ve called a million times and they still can’t tell me when power will be restored.”).

Con Edison — on paper — is defined as a “utility” which most people presume is an entity providing a necessary service that is regulated up the wazoo.

Well, maybe at some previous point in history but that all became moot in the 1990’s when the regulation of…