OP-ED: Is Massachusetts Ready for Two-Tiered System for License Renewals?
Imagine for a moment the next time you have to renew your driver’s license. You arrive at the Registry of Motor Vehicles office and find a line that extends outside the front door and around the building. You realize it will be hours before you can renew your license, which expires tomorrow. You can’t take more time from work, but you also can’t drive to your job without a license.
Suddenly a man approaches you in line. He says he has a deal for you. If you just give him $63, he will take you to a place where you don’t have to wait in line with all the other suckers. This place won’t be too strict about the eye exam and won’t get too prickly about making sure you have valid identification either. He can get you a license—one that you will use for driving, applying for a job, and getting through airport security—fast and easy, just give him the money and join his club.
Sound far fetched? Actually it’s not. In a slightly less colorful form, it’s already begun. Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles Rachel Kaprielian has recently signed an exclusive no-bid deal with the American Automobile Association of Southern New England to let them issue driver’s licenses.
For the first time in Massachusetts history, a private company has been given exclusive access to the personal data and social security number of every single driver in Massachusetts. And even though the Registry has already given AAA access to your name, address, picture, physical description, driving record and social security and license numbers, you don’t get access to their services unless you’re a AAA member. For the first time in Massachusetts history, you now have to join a private organization in order to receive a public service.
The politically connected and the well off likely already belong to AAA. If the wealthiest, whitest and most politically connected constituents are taken care of by this VIP arrangement, what incentive does the Patrick administration or the legislature have to properly staff Registry offices, which will be serving the vast majority of us who don’t have the extra money lying around to join AAA? The Patrick administration has already begun the first round of layoffs at the Registry. Longer lines—for the rest of us—will be here by summer.
Are we really willing to accept a two-tiered system for the issuance of driver’s licenses in Massachusetts—a private express lane for those who can afford to pay a premium and a long slow line for everyone else?
Aren’t we better than that?