New license plate mandate axed, state leaders say

6 m ago By Jason Fink

The state’s controversial proposal to force drivers to buy new license plates is dead, top legislative leaders said Sunday.

“The plan to issue new license plates for all vehicles will not go forward,” Assemb. Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and minority leader Brian Kolb (R-Geneva) said in a joint statement. “We understand that the governor is committed to this repeal.”

Gov. David Paterson, who proposed the new plates as part of his plan to close the state’s estimated $3 billion budget gap, was less definitive, though he said it was his “intention” to drop the idea.

“If the legislature works with me . . . to identify real, recurring savings that will replace the revenue that would be lost, I will eliminate the new license plate requirement,” he said in a statement.

Under Paterson’s proposal, all car owners would have been required to purchase the new plates for $25 starting in April, generating $129 million for state coffers.

The notion was met with outrage across the state, and county clerks planned to rally today in Albany in protest. A petition opposing the new fees had gathered more than 100,000 signatures.

It remained unclear if the state will still issue the new plates, which are gold and blue and reminiscent of the old blue-on-orange tags used from 1973 to 1986.

In the state Senate, which will convene special sessions Monday and Tuesday to work on the budget, Republicans fought hard against the license plate plan and a spokesman for the Democratic majority said Sunday his conference will support repealing it as long as no taxes are raised to make up for the lost revenue.

Legislative leaders and Paterson still had not reached an agreement yesterday on closing the deficit. Last month, the governor unveiled a budget fix that included cuts to education and Medicaid as well as the license plate fees. 

Newsday contributed to this story