PART OF THE ARTICLE
By Yancey Roy,
Albany Bureau, (February 4, 2004)
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said
many of the $1.1 billion in fees and tax increases proposed by Gov. George
Pataki might prove unnecessary.
That’s
because the improving stock market could lower New York’s budget gap
to $4 billion instead of an estimated $5 billion by March 31, the end of
the fiscal
year.
Pataki has proposed a slew of fee increases,
from snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle permits to alcoholic-beverage licenses
to civil-service exam costs.
People would pay $2.25 apiece for the privilege of disposing of old tires.
The
leader of the state Assembly has criticized the fee proposals.
Bruno went further,
singling out the handgun fee as unnecessary.
Under Pataki’s plan, pistol
owners would have to pay a $100 fee and renew their license every five years.
Currently, a gun owner has to qualify
only once.
“That hits over a million upstaters annually,” said Bruno, R-Brunswick,
Rensselaer County. “They’re law-abiding citizens. They’ve
qualified for the license, which is hard to do. And I’m not sure we
should be escalating the costs.”