Everyone dreads making a trip to their local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), but as a result of recently passed legislation, this DMV trip will now dip even deeper into your pockets. Effective September 1, fees on driver licenses and motor vehicle registrations increased, and next April, all registered vehicles will be required to get new license plates. These license plates will cost $25 (a $10 increase from the previous new plate fee of $15) and will be required at the time your vehicle’s registration is renewed. I am calling on the governor and the entire state Legislature to eliminate this requirement for new license plates when we meet this week for a special legislative session.
It is no secret that New York state is in a fiscal crisis, as demonstrated by the current $3.7 billion budget deficit. However, forcing motorists statewide to replace perfectly good license plates is not environmentally friendly and only adds another meaningless fee on our already overburdened taxpayers. The governor has tried to justify this new fee by saying that it will help close the state’s current-year budget gap, but his justification is not valid since the new license plates are not required until April of next year, which means the revenue they generate effect next fiscal year’s budget.
When the legislature met last week to tackle the budget deficit, my colleagues in the Assembly Minority Conference and I provided the governor with our plan to close the budget gap without making cuts to health care and education or further burdening New York taxpayers. These ideas, however, were not considered, let alone implemented. I am hopeful that when we reconvene this week these ideas will be discussed and passed, along with the elimination of the license plate fee.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns on this or any other state issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me at either my Johnstown office at (518) 762-6486, or my Herkimer office at (315) 866-1632.