Albany, N.Y. – On Wednesday, the New York State DMV defended its deal with a Canadian company to make state driver’s licenses.
Some state senators, including Mike Nozzolio, blasted the deal and said it wastes taxpayer money.
According to the Associated Press, the contract will cost the state $88 million dollars - $38 million more than the current contract.
In addition, the new identification will have black-and-white photos.
“It makes no sense for the taxpayers to pay a foreign company $38 million more for an inferior product that produces a substandard result,” Nozzolio, a Republican, said.
State DMV Commissioner Barbara Fiala responded with this statement:
“The current contract for the production of driver license and non-driver documents expires in May, 2013. As required, DMV issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for companies capable of producing the documents after that date. Three companies responded to the RFP. Each of their parent organizations are based outside of the United States. No New York company submitted a proposal, however, the winning bidder is required to produce the license documents in New York. Evaluation criteria were shared with all those submitting bids. The two losing bidders were not selected because their products were inferior with respect to document security and anti-tampering measures that are standard for licenses. Since the driver license serves as a de facto national identification card, it is extremely important that the documents we provide the citizens of New York are the most secure and least able to be altered or counterfeited. We are confident that the vendor we have chosen will provide the best value for the citizens of New York.”
In follow-up emails, Fiala’s office said the new IDs will be made out of polycarbonate, which costs more and results in the black-and-white photo.
People coming out the DMV in Irondequoit who spoke with 13WHAM weren’t sold.
“Seems like New York is broke as it is, so spend more because it’s black and white, it’s unnecessary,” said Justin Wheatley.
