Politics on the Hudson

   County clerks delivered four boxes of petitions opposing the state’s requirement that all drivers get new license plates starting next spring and pay $25 for them. They had collected signatures from more than 100,000 New Yorkers who want the state to quash the requirement, which would raise $130 million for the state.

   The signature were collected in couty clerks office and online. Patty Ritchie, president of the state Association of County Clerks, set up an online petition at www.nonewplates.com. About 70,000 people have signed that.

   “Senior citizens, single mothers, small business owners, working families and the unemployed rose up to oppose this ridiculous plan, signing our petitions and sharing their stories of the hardship that this new plate reissue plan will cause in already difficult times,” said Ritchie, who led the petition drive.

   The clerks wanted to drop the boxes off in front of the door to the Governor’s Office, but they were told to deliver them to the mail room. Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant and Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola are pictured above.

   Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant said he started a petition drive in his county because the state was “taking advantage of the people of my community” with the license-plate fees.

   “In Putnam County, 5,000 people went out of their way, not on line, to walk into my office to sign that petition,” he said.

   The average taxpayer understood what the license-plate fee was about, said Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Tivoli, Dutchess County.

   “It was a fiscal hostage-taking, frankly, and the taxpayers of New York want us to deal with big problems and big issues, and holding them hostage for a $25 license plate that’s not necessary was offensive,” he said.

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