BUFFALO, N.Y. — “I don’t think that the community should be nickeled and dimed for a new product, " said State Senator Tim Kennedy.
The chairman of the State Senate Transportation Committee spoke on Friday about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $25 license plate replacement fee. Kennedy says based on his conversations with fellow state senators around the state, the fee is not popular anywhere.
Cuomo made the announcement at the Great New York State Fair two weeks ago. The explanation was that plates with the previous white and blue plate design still may be ten years old and older. And there is a concern with the expansion of electronic tolling, that older plates would not be read-able to cameras at those toll areas.
Meanwhile, Cuomo and some of his senior aides have chided state lawmakers and reporters, saying they continue to get the facts wrong about the fee.
Earlier this week Cuomo said, "There’s been a factual confusion on the license plates.”
The Cuomo administration repeatedly points to a 2009 state law which states, "an additional fee, not to exceed twenty-five dollars" may be charged. To many, the law's language set $25 as the maximum charge, leaving open that the state DMV could charge nothing to replace the old plates.
Thursday, DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder was quoted in a statement saying if state lawmakers objected to the fee, they could return to Albany for a special session to address it.
Kennedy says because the fee does not go into effect until April, there's plenty of time to review the necessity of the fee during the annual spring budget negotiations.
He says the intensity of taxpayer opposition to the fee has caught him by surprise, “I think timing is everything and the fact of the matter is that was rolled out and people are just sick and tired of getting charged more and more for things that they feel that they don’t even need.”
