By Dan Murphy
Did any of you vote for the new license plate for New York State? Did any of you know about the vote? Neither did I, and I’m sorry that I didn’t notify you before the vote.
Starting in April, all New Yorkers will be required to obtain and pay for a new license plate. It’s been 10 years since the last licenses plates were issued. New Yorkers had the choice of selecting from and voting for five different license plate designs, all featuring the word Excelsior, Latin for “ever upward.”
Different backgrounds included the Mario Cuomo Bridge, two versions of the Statue of Liberty, the New York City skyline, and a montage of several NY landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, the New York City skyline, the Montauk lighthouse on Long Island, Niagara Falls and a mountain range, with blue, white and orange coloring. The montage version won the election, with 49.7 percent of the vote.
The Cuomo bridge version came in dead last with 9.7 percent of the vote.
Some controversy ensued over the voting for the new license plate. Some said Gov. Andrew Cuomo “rigged” the election by having two versions of the Statue of Liberty in the mix, in the hopes that the Cuomo bridge would win the election with two versions of Lady Liberty dividing the remaining vote.
NYS Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy led this conspiracy theory and filed a Freedom of Information Law requesting documentation about the vote. Even Nate Silver, a respected NY Times reporter and blogger, called the vote “rigged.”
There is a $25 fee for the new plate and another $20 if you want to keep the same plate number. The new charges have also resulted in a backlash, and opposition, from New Yorkers fed up with any type of tax or fee increase.
Several upstate New York legislators lashed out at the plan.
Sen. James Tedisco said: “This administration has more angles than a geometry book to get into the pockets of taxpayers. This license plate tax is truly highway robbery for the over-taxed and over-burdened taxpayers of New York State in the form of a new $70 million tax. Where is this $70 million windfall going and why should taxpayers not only have to foot the bill for the shoddy and inferior license plates created by 3M that are peeling but also for whatever other mystery projects this tax grab is funding. The governor and DMV should do the right thing for taxpayers and revoke this license plate tax now.”
Here in Westchester, State Sen. David Carlucci, who represents Ossining and Rockland County, also opposed the new $25 fee, stating: “Hardworking New Yorkers should not be burdened with this unnecessary cash grab by the state. A required fee to replace old license plates is arbitrary and does not in any way benefit drivers.”
Three million New Yorker car owners will be affected, resulting in $75 million in state revenues, minus the cost of the license plates. Cuomo called the old plates, “an eyesore,” and said he understood that “nobody wants to pay any money for anything. I mean, I don’t want to buy new plates either, but it is 10 years,” he said.
Cuomo admitted that some fellow democrats are against the idea. “Look, if the Legislature comes back and they want to change the cost of a license plate, they can do that,” he said in a radio interview on WAMC last week. “They want to change the cost of a fishing license, they can do that. They want to change the tax code, they can do that. They set the fee 10 years ago. You want to reduce it? I’m all in favor of it. But don’t say, as you said, the governor set a $25 fee.”
The governor also called Langworthy a “two-bit conspiracy theorist.”
More than 324,000 New Yorkers voted on the new design for the license plates.
Our verdict on the new license plate is that it does not fall under our “Wasting Taxpayer Dollars” feature of stories. In our view, after 10 years, having to pay $25 for a set of new plates does not fall under the same wasteful spending that we see in other areas of local, county and state government.
Send your opinions to risingmediagorup@gmail.com. Nate Silver’s blog is called fivethirtyeight.com.
