{"id":146878,"date":"2026-02-27T01:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146878\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T01:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:44:10","slug":"new-york-lawmakers-debate-25-vehicle-registration-fee-for-upstate-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146878\/","title":{"rendered":"New York lawmakers debate $25 vehicle registration fee for upstate drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK STATE (WRGB) \u2014 A proposal in the New York state Legislature to put an additional $25 vehicle registration fee for upstate drivers is drawing sharp debate, with supporters saying it would shore up struggling transit systems and opponents warning it would add to residents\u2019 costs.<\/p>\n<p>The fee is modeled after a downstate registration charge, where a $50 fee goes directly toward funding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.<\/p>\n<p>Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Magnarelli, D-129th Assembly District, is pushing the upstate fee as a way to improve public transportation outside the New York City area.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbs6albany.com\/news\/local\/new-yorks-new-license-point-system-takes-full-effect-monday-making-suspensions-easier\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MORE: New York&#8217;s new license point system takes full effect Monday, making suspensions easier<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying to get mass transit in Upstate New York up to par,\u201d Magnarelli said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the legislation would bring significant new money to transit agencies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis would allow us to receive approximately $125 million for Upstate New York transit systems,\u201d Magnarelli said.<\/p>\n<p>New York Public Transit Association President Miguel Vel\u00e1zquez said the additional revenue would provide stability as other funding sources have declined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have exhausted our COVID funds, so those have been used up. We have been seeing since COVID, as you well know, an increase in inflation which is impacting us, has been impacting us,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez said.<\/p>\n<p>Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman criticized the proposal in a statement, raising affordability concerns and calling it congestion pricing, saying:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Families struggling to pay for groceries, housing, and utilities could be hit with an extra $25 tax just to register their car. This is congestion pricing coming to a state near you \u2014 and it\u2019s only the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vel\u00e1zquez said that investing in upstate transit can help residents who depend on buses and other services for essential trips.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbs6albany.com\/community\/drive-safe\/winter-driving-what-the-law-requiresand-how-to-stay-safe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MORE: Winter Driving: What the Law Requires and How to Stay Safe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose folks, especially in Upstate New York, who rely on public transit to get to those critical jobs, health care, doing their groceries, those critical trips, they\u2019re able to do that because affordability is such a big issue for them,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK STATE (WRGB) \u2014 A proposal in the New York state Legislature to put an additional $25&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-146878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}