It's time to raise notary fee to $5

To the editor:

There are approximately 280,000 New York notaries counting on our state legislators to push S.B. 4166 to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office so that the notary fee can be raised to $5 in the current legislative session.

A backward state such as Alabama has raised the notary fee there from 50 cents $5.

New York notaries deserve at least $5 for the vital work they do in the face of modern-day, post-pandemic pressures. Most customers even admit that the current $2 fee is much too little.

Also, most signers still prefer to do traditional in-person notarizations in the Bronx and Yonkers over the more expensive remote online notarization process.

In the greater Riverdale area especially, it is quite difficult to find an in-person notary since most banks here no longer perform notarizations.

Stephen Reich

The author is from Stephen’s Notary Service on Henry Hudson Parkway