New York – Owning a car will become a little more costly in New York as increases of 25 percent for driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations take effect Tuesday.
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The average registration fee will go from $44 to $55 and a standard eight-year license renewal will cost $64.50, up from $50. The cost of distinctive license plates will also rise 25 percent.
The hikes are among 52 taxes and fees that were either increased or established by lawmakers and the governor to help balance the state budget earlier this year. The state was facing a record $20 billion budget deficit at the time.
“This is one of the many difficult choices that were necessary across the budget,” said Matt Anderson, a spokesman for Gov. David Paterson’s Division of Budget.
The new registration fees apply to commercial and passenger vehicles, trailers, taxis, buses, motorcycles, motorboats and all-terrain vehicles.
The driver’s license fees haven’t gone up since 1992 and registration fees have not been raised since 1998, Anderson said. The revenues from the higher fees will go to the state’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund.
As part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bailout earlier this year, there will be additional fees on driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations for the 12-county MTA region. For a standard eight-year license renewal, there is an extra $16 fee. The MTA surcharge is $50, so the registration on an average passenger vehicle will be $105.
Many of the other tax and fee increases that were part of the budget have already taken effect, such as a higher surcharge on car insurance and greater fees for residential and commercial property transfers.
Several new increases take effect Oct. 1, including higher costs to obtain lifetime, resident and non-resident fishing licenses. A new marine fishing license goes into effect Oct. 1.
Republican Assembly members have been teaming up with county clerks and other officials around the state to protest the increases. Last Friday, Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County, held a news conference Friday with Sen. Vincent Leibell, R-Patterson, and Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant.
Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Schenectady, held a news conference Monday, and there is one scheduled for Tuesday by Assembly members Nancy Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove, Orange County, Mark Molinaro, R-Red Hook, Dutchess County, and Assemblyman Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie.
The Legislature and Paterson should not be increasing taxes and fees, particularly in such tough economic times, Tedisco said.
If enough people speak loudly enough about the new charges, “I think there’s a chance we can repeal some of these,” he said.
The governor said it’s understandable that people are upset about the DMV fee hikes. If lawmakers decided to repeal them, and they came up with a way to replace those revenues, he would go along with that, “but they’re not going to just be able to get up at a press conference and act shrill,” he said.
“In the event that we were able to do that, I would just warn everyone there are going to be other choices that are going to create this same reaction, and the reaction is one that’s perfectly understandable, but we are in a recession,” he said.
The increases in taxes and fees “are disproportionately going to kill middle-class families who are already strapped in a bad economy,” Ball said in a statement.
The governor plans to call lawmakers back into session this month to deal with the state’s current $2.1 billion deficit.
Tedisco also criticized the license plate replacement program, which takes effect April 1, 2010. All registered vehicles will be required to get new plates as of that date, and they will have to pay $25 for that.
The last time new license plates were issued was beginning in 2001, so it will have been almost a decade when the new ones are given out starting in April, Anderson said.
It won’t be necessary for everyone to get new plates at that time. Car owners will have to pay the fee and get them when their registration comes up for renewal, he said.
we think the best bet now would be to just walk…..it doesnt cost a penny…. 🙂
There is no mention of the outrageous fines motorists have to pay if they park in a bike lane. They should charge the hipsters a fee for riding a bike.
go ahead! TAX US! little suckers! use the money to show you are providing services, then when no more money is left, come out and yell DEFICIT! and royally TAX US AGAIN! then start from the begining as many times as possible.
Difference between democrats and republicans is republicans keep on taxing everybody after splitting them into small sectors, ie plumbers tax, accountants tax, electrician tax, tires tax, etc. so that you won’t have people getting together to decry the new taxes. whereas the dems just get the chance, they jump the gun. Whoaa were in control lets roll out the healthcare thingy, lets tell all those dumb people (our constituence) that “it won’t cost’em a diyme” well pay using our money that’s in their pockets. (well no other way to open a school and pay for meals for the same price paid for your family of 3)
Conclusion, dems and republicans, both are out to screw us for some fame. difference, repubs try doing it quitely whereas demass are out to screw us royally while telling us that it’s good and were fools.
LONG LIVE THE USA!
#2 you are so right. make the bikers get a license, charge for the license and an annual license fee all under the pritexct of preventing theft of bikes……..gevaldig.
If there so in need of money? They can take from the george washington bridge, acording to my calculations,there is a few million a day coming in?( To pay for some guys to sleep at the toll bothe’s,
Time for a change vote all of them out on the next election. Move to Jersey and leave Paterson here by him self