(TRENTON) — Utility companies in New Jersey are currently allowed to charge customers for the expenses they incur when asking to raise rates. They can also recover the money they spend on lobbying and travel through electric bills.

Assemblyman Dave Bailey, Jr. introduced a bill Thursday to end these operational costs from being passed to ratepayers. The “Utility Rate Recovery Fairness Act,” would prohibit utilities from charging customers for a variety of company expenses unrelated to supplying energy and maintaining the grid, including rate case legal costs, political lobbying and membership dues to industry advocacy organizations, and executive-level expense reimbursements.

“Utility companies pay a team of experts and lawyers to present a case to the BPU about why they should be allowed to raise rates,” said Assemblyman Bailey. “Then they ask customers to pick up the tab. It’s like hiring someone to fix your house and then being charged for the cost of their gas to drive over and explain why their price should be higher.”

Bailey noted that the recent rise in electric bills across New Jersey is requiring the legislature to take a hard look at how the state regulates electric and gas utilities, and question longstanding practices about how rates are set. That includes establishing new rules for what operating costs are and aren’t allowed to be passed on to ratepayers.

“People in New Jersey should not be paying for the lobbying utility companies do in Trenton, or the fees they pay to the trade groups that promote the interests of the utilities over the customers,” said Bailey. “They definitely shouldn’t be paying for plane trips. This bill is about setting fair rates and eliminating the charges that are not.”