NY To Require Replacing 10-Year-Old License Plates [POLL]

New York State is going to redesign its license plates, and the news ones will be available in April 2020. Also, people get to vote online for their favorite design, one of which features the new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge and is the only one that doesn't have the word "Excelsior" on it. (It means "ever upward.")

If having new license plates makes you happy, good, but there is a catch. It's going to cost you $25 to get a new set of plates if your current ones are more than 10 years old.

And if you to want to keep your current registration or vanity plate, it will cost you an extra $20.

At a press conference video recorded by The Post-Standard, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the industry standard for the lifetime of license plates is 10 years.

He said the state needs license plates that license plate readers, such as those at toll areas, can read and that the $25 replacement fee was established in 2009 before he was governor.

Cuomo also the cost of licenses plates should not be subsidized by taxpayers who may not have cars.

Some lawmakers are not pleased that motorists will have to shell out for new license plates.

State Sen. David Carlucci, a Democrat who represents Rockland and Westchester counties, called it an "unnecessary cash grab by the state.

"A required fee to replace old license plates is arbitrary and does not in any way benefit drivers," he said in a released statement.

Republican Assemblyman Kevin Byrne, of Mahopac, said he was disgusted by Albany's latest attempt to make a buck.

He echoed Carlucci's "cash grab" characterization and added that it "is essentially a new tax on New York drivers."

Putnam County Clerk Michael Bartolotti said that last mandatory plate exchange in the state happened in 2001 with the replacement of the liberty plates at a cost $5.50. That replaced plates that were in circulation for more than 15 years.

"It's ironic that New Yorkers are asked to vote on the new design but have had no input whatsoever about the mandatory replacement fees," he said.

"They shouldn't have to incur an additional fee just to keep the same plate number, which many people prefer to do since it is tied to registrations and E-ZPasses," Bartolotti said.

Now it's your turn to weigh in. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.