As part of an attempt to make up a budget shortfall, New York State is holding a huge fundraiser. No, not a bake sale: starting in April 2010, the state is forcing all car and tractor-trailer owners in the state to buy new license plates when they renew their registrations. And not just any license plates. Ugly license plates.
Drivers will need to pay $25 for their new plates, and an additional $20 if they want to keep their current plate numbers. Since everyone has an extra $25 lying around these days.
The new plates, featuring a bold new gold hue and a highly reflective surface, will make the roads safer and “reflect New York’s force and its resilience,” according to the state’s commissioner of motor vehicles.
They will also generate $260 million in revenue and create more than 100 jobs – at the maximum security prison where inmates make the plates for up to 42 cents an hour.
Yes, I own a car in New York and just had new plates issued last year.
In Need of Cash, State Requiring Drivers to Buy New $25 Plates [NY Times] (Thanks, Crystal!)
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@RedwoodFlyer: I concur with the others. You have been hearted by the lot of us.
This is New York State looking for a new source of revenue, plain and simple. Our company collects New York State Sales Tax. We’ve been registered with NYS for 10+ years. Recently I received a notice that we must re-register to “update the database” and get a new certificate. Easy enough except 1) There is a mandatory $ 50 fee to re-register and 2) There is no indication of any expiration date on the certificate. So, theoretically, 6 months from now NYS could repeat the process again. Re-register, pay $ 50. See you in 6 months for a cleaning.
@GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee: Dang.. I miss all the fun because I was out today.. Bah. You handled it well anyway.
@subtlefrog: Ditto. Hearted RedwoodFlyer myself.
I just got plates a year ago after moving to NY. Are you guys serious? People never had to change their plates before this? Just about every state that I know of requires plates to be changed out every ‘x’ number of years, usually 7. In TX it was just part of the deal with registration. If you owned the car for 7 years, when you went to register they just handed over new plates to you.
Agree the color is horrendous. Probably an attempt to up the vanity plate sales.
And I agree too that there’s hordes of other ridiculous things to be more upset about with the state of NY. Did you know a liquor store, the only place to buy wine up here, can’t sell you a wine bag to make it a gift? A bunch of liquor stores got fined heavily at the beginning of the year because(gasp!)the sold wine gift bags.
@quail:
Read the article. They’re not just “handing over new plates”, they’re charging everyone (including you) $25 for the new plates.
If they are going to create 100 new jobs in the prison, does this mean they will need 100 more prisoners to keep up with demand. I guess this can’t be called FREE enterprise, since the prisoners aren’t free.
If the governor is “creating” jobs, maybe he will qualify for more stimulus money.
@pecan 3.14159265: Also, some of us had reason to be very sure he was joking. Just sayin’.
I’d call him on his jokes if I thought it truly crossed a line, as would many of us.
@katstermonster: Yes, we know you watch him while he sleeps. No need to act any more creepy about it than it already is.
Heh. Just wait until the gov’t charges a “fee” to print and mail your health insurance card. Heck, where I live they already charge a $5 “fee” for the sticker to show you paid your annual car tax. Yes, you pay your taxes and then you have to buy a $5 sticker to prove you paid your taxes. $5! I don’t even think stickers cost that much at Disney World.
I like the looks of this new plate. Looks retro,,,1930s.
I like them… they’re Sabres colors! Let’s go Buff-a-lo! Wooo.
yet another reason to move out of NY.
show me the law I say, if the code hasn’t been amended and this is some scheme by the DMV, tell them to piss off on principal.
These new plates look remarkably similar to some older plates I saw in my grandparents garage… From like 30-40 years ago.
Also, policies like this are a big reason I left NY. Too many taxes and a government that can’t manage it’s budget for crap.
Didn’t Michigan just do this? I really dislike the new plates, although I’m not sure they made us pay extra…
@xl22k: the worst thing you could do to a car is put a Connecticut driver behind the wheel.
@Optimistic Prime: Also, old plates are difficult to read – dirt, mud, and the reflective stuff wears off over the years, all this making things harder for police.
Of course, in the State of Washington, they required you to get a new plate of the same design as the old one – They don’t change a good design cause some of them are old.
@HurtsSoGood: What do you pay for registration in NY?
In Maine a new car owner pays $600-$1200(no kidding) for the first year PLUS a $35 registration fee.
____
[www.maine.gov]
For example, a 3 year old car with an MSRP of $19,500 would pay $263.25.
@HurtsSoGood: Hah. I, too, thought they looked very old-school. Cool if you have a classic muscle car. Not so cool if you have anything else.
@GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee: This is simply unbelievable. You have a personal experience related to nearly every story posted on the consumerist. You’re making this stuff up. I bet you just found out about Seeing Eye today by googling “blind charity”.
Don’t use politics to justify your own misanthropy.
@GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee: Wow, I’d think that if those others HAVEN’T raised at least THREE seeing eye dogs (or ONE seeing eye cat), they owe us an abject apology.
PS: I laughed.
Q: Why doesn’t Helen Keller live in New Jersey?
A: She’s can’t see, not can’t smell.
@GitEmSteveDave_HurtHisKnee: I see, you justify making a bigoted comment because you did something positive (assuming you really did). Does that mean if you contribute to the NAACP you feel you can use the “N” word? I sure as hell hope not, but if you do I truly hope you say it in person, to people who will take you to task over it.
There is absolutely no reason for you to make bigoted comments and nothing you do or say gives you the right to do so.
@flugennock: They have options for DC plates? I’ve only ever seen the ‘Taxation’ ones that I can recall — guess that says something!
@Karita: I agree RE distinguishing NY cars more easily … it’ll help the Massachusetts State Police lock onto out out-of-state (NY) cars heading to and from the Cape.
@Trai_Dep: LOL!! You’re so creatively evil.
@SG-Cleve: Unless it’s one of those horrible orange and blue Charger monstrosities I see around here all the time. Perfect match. Can I send them all to New York?
@SG-Cleve: School buses and taxis.
@SG-Cleve: even bright yellow sports cars aren’t this color. ugh, so not looking forward to this.
@SG-Cleve: Those are the colors NY used 40 years ago. Now, as then, we’ll be able to spot the NY cars from far behind them. That will tell us which lane to avoid.
@Dondegroovily: Washington is also not forcing the update RIGHT NOW. The new 7 digit plates are being phased in on the regular 7 year replacement cycle. So if you got a new 6 digit plate this year you won’t have to replace it until 2016.
I’ve never heard the fine folks in Eastern Washington complain about having Mt. Rainier on the plate either. I like to think it’s because it is a great design. Or maybe they’ve all opted for one of the 120 special plate options.
@Dondegroovily: North Carolina started rolling out new plates about 2 years ago – the plan was (and still is) to replace any plates issued before a certain year (somewhere around 1995 or 2000, iirc). they also changed the lettering from blue to red, supposedly to “increase visibility”. about a year after they started issuing the so-called “red plates” (which are the same design as the old ones, just a different color lettering) they decided to go back to the old style of blue letters on pressed plates (for a short period, either at the end of the “blue” run or the beginnoing of the “red” run, they were issuing flat plates that didn’t have raised lettering – not sure if it was printed that way, or just something as basic as vinyl lettering under a clearcoat)
@Paladin_11: Times are so bad, I’ve heard even HE had to come back from the dead and work.
@The Black Bird: You really need to learn to recognize REAL bigotry from satire, humor, and sarcasm. You’re wasting everyone’s time on an issue that doesn’t even exist.
@Trai_Dep: New York Subway Graffiti – numbers and letters in a graffiti-esque font, or “Burning Bronx” with fire imagery.
@Trai_Dep: Which blackout? The one in 1965, ’77, or 2003?
@varro: Times Square Classic, with prostitute silhouettes framed by junkie needles with a teeth-gnashing Rudi Guilianni starting at the plate from the side?
King Kong, one that I’d move to NYC to buy, with the Empire State Building, along with the Great Ape himself, on opposite sides of the frame, with the numbers & letters made from shrieking Fay Wray figures?
@MostlyHarmless: I’m fine with that, as long as he pays his back taxes. And if he’s not playing a gig on Earth anytime soon.
@RedwoodFlyer: For this unanimously epic performance in this thread. I heart you. I have not laughed so hard at the comments on this board this week. You sir, totally made my Sunday.
Katstermonster, GESD, Trai_Dep, Subtlefrog, Jrsy Devil: You all put in an awesome performance too. Too bad I can only heart you guys once.
@CapHwys: In Washington state, you have to pay for new plates every 7 years. This is so that you will have nice shiny reflective plates for the speed trap troopers to aim their lasers at (since we also require that a plate be displayed on the front of the vehicle).
This is from a state that stopped sending two registration stickers for your plates at renewal several years ago to save money. (We only display the sticker on the rear plate.)
@PsiCop: They really are hideous. The current NY plates aren’t bad at all, I feel bad they have to trade them in for these things.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Yeah, we have a similar arrangement. We need 2000 signatures and $40,000 to get a plate started, and 4000 sales for it to be kept alive.
@perruptor: I thought I remembered that color scheme. I didn’t realize it was that long ago, but it was during my childhood, and since I’m now 50, I guess it was that long ago.
@wcnghj:
AND, that isn’t sales tax rolled into the loan, it has to be paid when the temporary plates run out!! You also pay a huge sum every year after that.
@MikeM_inMD: perruptor is mistaken. Those colors have been used on all NY plates except the 1986-2000 Statue of Libery white plates (e.g. Kramer’s ASSMAN plates on Seinfeld) and the current plates, which I still feel are the best plates we or any state have.
@subtlefrog: Yeah, this is pretty much what I was thinking. There are a group of us (and take this for what you will) that are regulars, and because we know this, it’s easier for all of us to defend one another in some manner – if there’s some kind of “attack” that some of us think is unjustified, it’s a lot easier for any of us to show examples that dispute the false accusation.
@RedwoodFlyer: Can Greg House join the cane-swingers lobby? They might like him when it comes time to play the parapalegics in bowling, since he makes cripple jokes all the time.
@MostlyHarmless: Technically, you can unheart them and reheart them.
@rorschachex: No, I am not ‘mistaken.’ If I had said “NY stopped using those colors 40 years ago,” I would be mistaken. I did not say that.
[www.15q.net]
@El_Red: And, they’ll be made in a prison close to where I live!
Seriously, though, at this point I don’t think this is going to happen. There’s such an uproar about it.
@katstermonster:
Resemble that remark??
@GitEmSteveDave_Isn’tFreshPerked: Wow, you’re just troll bait today I guess stevedave! Maybe just cause it’s monday and everyone is itching for an argument, amazing how little sense of humor people have lately.