Gov. Cuomo is taking the car keys away from tax deadbeats.
The Department of Motor of Motor Vehicles has suspended the driver’s licenses of 7,850 motorists who owe the state more than $10,000 in back taxes, The Post has learned.
The effort is part of a state tax-enforcement program, launched last year, to prod delinquents into ponying up.
The state has already collected $48 million from thousands of other tax delinquents who value their driving privileges.
“Scofflaws who are ducking their tax bills should be on notice that the state will use any and all tools at [its] disposal to get them to pay what they owe,” Cuomo said. “Judging by the success of this initiative, that message has been heard loud and clear.”
Since last summer, the state Tax Department has warned more than 17,000 tax delinquents of the consequences of failing to settle their debts. Authorities told the deadbeats that their names would be forwarded to the DMV for action if they failed to respond within 60 days.
It was no idle threat. Thus far, 7,850 scofflaws’ licenses have been suspended for six months, said a Tax Department spokesman, Geoffrey Gloak.
Most of those suspended are in the New York City area: 1,104 from Manhattan; 1,071 from Queens; 1,019 from Brooklyn; 797 from Suffolk; 725 from Nassau; 469 from The Bronx; 461 from Westchester; 300 from Staten Island; 133 from Rockland; and 36 from Putnam.
Another 5,700 tardy taxpayers have seen the light and either have paid up in full or entered into a payment agreement.
Still, 3,500 other delinquents are in jeopardy of losing their licenses if they don’t pay up soon, officials said.
The tough-love program has been a success, said Tax Commissioner Tom Mattox.
“Collection of past-due liabilities has totaled nearly $48 million,” Mattox said.
That’s substantially more than the $26 million tax watchdogs initially expected to collect from the crackdown, he noted.
Gloak said, “This is an example of an enforcement program that also serves as a deterrent. This program has definitely had an impact.”
The program has broad bipartisan support in the state Legislature.
“Any enforcement program that collects $48 million is a program that’s working,” said Brooklyn Republican state Sen. Martin Golden.
“Driving is a privilege in New York. And if you don’t pay your taxes, we take your privilege away. This will force people to make paying taxes a priority.”
The state may have a difficult time collecting from some of its biggest tax scofflaws — who are already either grounded or dead, according to a review of its tax warrants.
The estate of Frank A. Marchello, an Albany strip- club owner who died in 2002, has the biggest outstanding state tax warrant — $24.5 million.
Then comes a man very much alive, opera philanthropist Alberto Vilar, who spent time in the slammer for securities fraud and money laundering. He owes $17.9 million, according to the Tax Department.
And there’s a tax warrant for Abraham Hirschfeld for $13.1 million. The real-estate developer died in 2005.