Not so E-Z license plates scrapped

The state has recalled thousands of the new license plates that Gov. Cuomo insisted on rolling out on the grounds that they would work better with E-ZPass cameras — after discovering that they don’t work with E-ZPass at all.

“From my understanding, E-ZPass can’t read the plates. It reads one big block, no numbers,” Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola told The Post Wednesday.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles recalled the new plates, which were set to launch April 1, because some of them were “too reflective” for street cameras, Spectrum News reported.

“Early on, the state changed its manufacturing process once it was discovered that some of the new plates were too reflective, and while some have been shipped inadvertently to counties, none were issued to drivers,”

DMV rep Lisa Koumjian said in a statement.

“The state has already collected and replaced them, and they will eventually be reissued.”

Cuomo faced an uproar last summer for a plan to require New Yorkers with plates 10 years old or older to purchase the new ones for $25 — plus another $20 if they wanted to keep their previous number.

At the time, Cuomo insisted the older plates were “not designed to work with the technology” installed on E-ZPass toll machines.

He eventually ditched the requirement and eliminated the replacement fee.

The new plates, chosen via a public poll, feature the state motto “Excelsior” and a panorama of New York landscapes.

Merola, a Republican, told The Post that the DMV’s field investigations unit contacted his office last week to say it was “auditing” the new plates to ensure none was defective. “They weren’t doing an audit. The audit was they wanted to pick them up,” he said. “They have a real problem, so they’re going out to every office and taking them back. That was the whole reason the governor wanted new plates.” The DMV would not say how many plates it had recalled in all. But state Sen. Jim Tedisco (R-Glenville) said 15,500 plates had been recalled just from his district, which includes Saratoga, Fulton, Herkimer and Rensselaer counties. State officials said the recalled plates will be stockpiled for later use, not thrown away. Tedisco said the DMV must be transparent about what went wrong.

“This is inexcusable,” he said. “Somebody goofed, and you should be telling the truth.”