IN MY OPINION: More fees, more problems
By Anthony Bazzo
In a recent press release, Dr. Terrence Murphy, who is a candidate for the Yorktown Town Board (R, C) has called attention to a double whammy about to plague us by the New York State and the MTA. Starting in September 2009, it will cost more to register your car — lots and lots more. Also, in April 2010, you will be required to get new license plates at an added fee. You will also be paying more to renew your driver’s license. This is all part of the “damn the people” budget passed in April. There are additional fees we will pay as part of the MTA taxing district so subway riders in NYC do not have to pay their fair share.
First, the state increases. According to Dr. Murphy, driver license fees and vehicle registration fees will be increased by 25 percent. Also, the 25 percent increase means Class D driver’s license fees will increase from $50 to $64.50. Registration fees for an automobile weighing 3500 lbs will climb from $45 to $56. That’s just for September. Here is what is in store for April 2010: “Effective April 1, 2010 all registered vehicles will be required to get new license plates, which will cost $25.”. To add insult to injury, if you wish to keep your current plate it will cost an additional $20. I’ll get back to this in a moment.
According to Dr. Murphy, here is where the MTA bailout comes back to bite us again. Besides the new payroll tax, fare and toll increases, add 11 percent pay raises just awarded by arbitration. “For the 12 county MTA region which Westchester is a part of there will be an additional $16 fee on all drivers licenses; translating into $80.50 for a class D license. For all vehicle registration, a $50 supplemental fee will be added, causing a 3500 lb. automobile $106.50 to be registered.” This wage increase and less payment towards health care will add an additional cost of $350 million to an MTA budget already bleeding red ink. What is really outrageous is when the MTA complained they did not have the money to fund this increase in pay and benefits, the arbitration board told them to take the money from the capital improvement budget. That is where the new taxes and fees imposed on us were supposed to go. The arbitration board, with this ruling, has basically told us where we can go.
Returning to the additional $20 fee to keep your license plates: this is where the state tells us where to go. Your license plate is tied to parking permits, E-Z pass, and in my business taxi cab licenses among other things. So if you do not want to totally mess up your life, you must pay another $20 on top of the new fees.
I am so tired of automobile owners being demonized and forced to subsidize straphangers. Since I was a kid, car ownership was part of the American dream. The people who actually use buses and subways only pay 25 percent of the costs. Car owners pay 50 percent. Also, I do not want to hear about the environment and climate change; these are just canards to separate us from our money and control our movements by forcing us into mass transit. Let those who actually use the system pay the bulk of its cost. Auto owners pay for their pleasure, and nobody is subsidizing us. I am so tired of paying for other people’s choices.
The bottom line here is that there is nobody in Albany who deserves re-election next year. This state budget and MTA mess took years to make, and our current representatives are part and parcel of its causes, not innocent bystanders as they are pretending to be. They want you to think they have had a fiscal epiphany, but in reality it was just a ruse to hide their years of cow-towing to the special interests instead of our interests.
I think Putnam County is right by withholding the new payroll tax from the state. It is time for other towns, cities and counties to do the same. I’ve been told that this will lead to anarchy. This is just a fear tactic to get you to do nothing but comply. I’ve been told that the state will just withhold funds for other services. Let them! They are trying to blackmail us with our own money. The birth seed of this country was over punitive taxation (taxation without representation, remember that phrase?). It has now evolved to the point that taxation with representation is not much better than without.
This is my opinion, you may beg to differ.
