By Tom Grace
County clerks from many upstate New York counties said they'll converge on Albany on Monday to lobby Gov. David Paterson to rescind a plan requiring vehicle owners to purchase new license plates.
About 20 clerks met in Herkimer on Thursday to plan the initiative, Otsego County Clerk Kathy Sinnott-Gardner said.
``Assemblyman Marc Butler (R-Newport) was there with us, and I've asked Sen. (James) Seward (R-Milford) to come with us Monday,'' Sinnott-Gardner said.
After the clerks arrive in Albany, they will present the governor with petitions signed by those opposed to paying $25 for new plates, she said.
According to Ken Brown, a spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, the requirement for vehicle owners to buy new license plates is part of the state's 2009-10 budget.
Residents who register vehicles for the first time after April 1 will be required to purchase plates at a cost of $25. New plates also will be required for renewing registrations that expire in May 2010 or later, he said.
As registrations come due for renewal, people will change plates. After two years, the state's entire fleet of vehicles will have the new aluminum Empire Gold plates.
The fee for the plates will be added to registration fees, which are assessed based on the weight of a vehicle. Those fees average about $52, he said.
The new blue-and-gold plates, reminiscent of tags the state issued in the 1970s, will be made by convicts at the Auburn Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison.
``There's a factory inside the prison,'' Brown said.
Sinnott-Gardner, who oversees DMV offices in Oneonta and Cooperstown, said the plates are not needed and people don't want them.
``They're upset, and I'm upset because this is really just a way raise revenue,'' she said. ``The plates we have now are fine.''
Paterson does not dispute this, according to his spokesman, Morgan Hook. The state's immediate need is for the $129 million the license-plate program will net, he said.
``The governor's heard the critics, and he's challenged them to come up with a plan to replace that money in next year's budget,'' Hook said. ``So far, not one of them has.''
Hook said if politicians who oppose the plan ``are just going to criticize `from the cheap seats,' as the governor says, they're not going to get anywhere.'' But if someone proposes a workable alternative with revenue totaling $129 million, ``he would revisit this plan,'' Hook said.
For too long in New York, politicians have disguised budgetary problems with borrowing, bonding and other stop-gap measures, but Paterson won't resort to those tactics, he said.
Sinnott-Gardner said, ``It's not my job to fix the state budget. It's my job to represent my constituents, and they don't want to pay for unnecessary license plates.''
Those who want to add their names to the petition against the plan may do so on the Internet at www.nonewplates.com, she noted.
