Published: November 16, 2009 11:58 pm      

LICENSE PLATES: Clerks ire sways Albany on fees

The next New York state budget would force all drivers to replace their license plates this spring for a $25 fee unless county officials from across the state win out in their opposition to the plan.

In many ways, it appears they have.

County clerks statewide — many of whom would be saddled with collecting the state’s wildly unpopular license plate fees — were upset enough to launch a sweeping petition drive earlier this month to repeal the mandate.

The New York State Association of County Clerks met Monday in Albany to collect and forward the signatures to legislators, where it appears officials have heard the overwhelming cry that enough is enough.

“It sounds like a victory. We’re hoping it holds up,” the association’s DMV Committee Chairman Frank Merola said.

Merola said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has said it’s going to be repealed. Gov. David Paterson has also said he’s willing to work to toss the measure out, provided some other scheme can account for the same needed revenue.

Merola, who is the Rensselaer County Clerk, said in light of the fact most DMV fees have already gone up, asking motorists to again open their wallets to fill in a $130 million shortfall — part of the much greater budget deficit in New York — is unfair.

At the press conference, about 20 member clerks turned over a total of well over 100,000 signatures, which were then collected and put in boxes headed for the legislative offices.

Of the signatures pushing legislators to reconsider, more than 3,000 came from Niagara County and an even bigger number was delivered from Erie County, with clerks Wayne Jagow and Kathleen Hochul collecting them from each county respectively.

All the clerks are members of the clerks association, which represents clerks who administer DMV business at some 130 locations statewide.

Merola likened their role to a “tax collector” given the nature of the fees and explained that in this particular instance, it was a job none of them wanted.

Residents agreed.

“We had people come in the office to sign the petition who didn’t even have DMV business,” he said.

The $20 per driver the state was hoping would fill in its shortfalls would actually jump to $45 if people wanted to keep the same license plate number. But regular license fees had already gone up 25 percent.

Jagow’s First Deputy Clerk Wendy Roberson summed it up:

“I think initially the clerk’s reaction was that this is something that would be very unfair to drivers because fees for registrations were already increased Sept. 1,” she said.

She also pointed out the effect would be more devastating to companies that rely of more than one registered vehicle and families.

She said the association of county clerks came together “in a really effective way,” and attributed part of their success to the choice to host an online petition that can grab signatures fast. That site was hosted at the Niagara County Clerk office and at www.nonewplates.org.

Of the 62 counties statewide, most have DMV offices run by county clerks. But Roberson said the decision to oppose the measure had nothing to do with avoiding the increased workload in processing all the new plates, and everything to do with a keen understanding of how expensive car ownership has become in recent years.

“It’s my belief that the clerks were really against it from a fiscal standpoint,” she said.

If no new solution can be found, the new plate requirement would go into effect April 1. It is expected to produce $129 million in revenue for the upcoming two years.

The State has a deficit of $3.2 billion in the current year and a 2010-11 deficit of $6.8 billion.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.