Every day I receive phone calls, emails and see people in person who complain to me about the governor’s new license plate proposal. People are upset because they feel that this is yet another example of the war on upstate and Western New York communities where people have to drive every day.

This license plate money grab is the perfect example of how upstate taxpayers are constantly being nickel and dimed to death with taxes and fees. We already pay a fee to register our title, register our vehicle, and secure a driver’s license. We pay significant state income tax, property tax, sales tax, fees for hunting, fishing, and marriage licenses. Please know that I voted against this year’s $176 billion state budget coupled with nearly $60 billion in state debt. The tax-and-spend mentality out of the Albany majority continues to march along without placing any emphasis on real mandate and tax relief and reducing unnecessary state spending.

Many citizens in Western New York communities are further inconvenienced by the condition of our local roads, bridges and infrastructure. Despite the urgent need to fix our roads upstate, the downstate-driven Majority continues to ignore the problem and, in fact, this year continues to spend disproportionality more on downstate infrastructure items.

But on top of that, the downstate-driven Majority made unnecessary and overly complicated changes to the School Tax Relief (STAR) program which essentially makes it much harder for New York property owners to get the tax relief they desperately need. Again, this money-grab primarily targets citizens who own properties in communities outside of New York City.

If these weren’t offensive enough, this group focused this legislative session on introducing and pushing bills that reward criminals. For example, they advanced a bill to allow violent criminals to be released without bail and passed legislation to allow felons to serve on juries. The governor pushed hard to allow for mandatory parole at age 55 as well as paroled a plethora of murderers, cop-killers and child molesters. Now he wants to give inmates a huge pay raise.

The downstate-driven Majority passed bills to give unlawful immigrants free college tuition paid for by taxpayers, but did next to nothing to increase the affordability for college-bound children of the hardworking men and women of our state. They also passed legislation to give undocumented persons driver’s licenses and adopted a bill that will likely continue to put farms out of business.

Enough is enough! I have stood up and voted “NO” on all these aforementioned items and will continue to speak out against this nonsense. In specific regards to this license plate tax, I have sponsored legislation with Sen. Rob Ortt and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb to waive the fee (S.6663).

Please know I am honored to represent Western New York and will continue to aggressively do so. To stay updated on this bill and my other efforts to improve our quality of life here in Western New York, please follow me on social media or e-mail me at norrism@nyassembly.gov to sign up for my e-news updates.