ALBANY – The pandemic may be officially over but New York is still paying an eye-raising fee of $200,000 per month to maintain a state vaccine passport that nobody uses.
The Excelsior App was supposed to cost New York a mere $2.5 million when it debuted in the spring of 2021 as a way for New Yorkers to show their COVID-19 vaccinations as the state lifted pandemic restrictions on restaurants and live event venues.
But costs since then have ballooned to $64 million, the Albany Times Union reported Sunday.
“The original idea was definitely worth exploring,” Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, said.
“What seems to be happening is a bonafide crisis opened the door to spending a lot of money off the radar without the usual checks and balances, without the usual oversight of the comptroller.”