The Ithaca Journal reports that the state's breezy projections of a windfall from the sale of "enhanced" drivers' licenses, which contain radio-transmitting RFID chips, are way, way off.
State officials once estimated revenue from new enhanced driver's licenses would bring in $66.4 million a year for the state's coffers. Now they estimate it will bring in $3 million a year.
In the year since the federal government has required U.S. citizens entering the country to present an enhanced license, a federal passport card or a U.S. passport, New York has issued about 320,000 enhanced driver's licenses -- far short of initial expectations.
Are New Yorkers content to carry their passports on jaunts over the Canadian border? Are they nervous about the prospect of identity theft via RFID hackers? Or do they just not want to spend an extra $30 at the DMV?
