MTA Not Alone In Getting Free Rides
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- May
- 30
Members of transportation authorities in the state don’t get paid, but they get free rides on the buses and bridges they oversee.
Transportation authorities in Buffalo, Albany, Syracuse and Rochester let their board members ride free on local buses any time they want.
Meanwhile, the state Bridge Authority, which oversees five bridges in the Hudson Valley, has for years let its members ride free with their E-Z Pass tags over its bridges – while all other drivers have to pay a $1 toll.
Yet on Thursday the Bridge Authority independently suspended the free E-Z Pass on the bridges for the 12 current and former members who were receiving the benefits.
Bridge Authority spokesman John Bellucci said the board expects to vote next month to end the E-Z Pass breaks permanently.
“We’re a public authority. The attorney general has an opinion that he says he believes it’s illegal. In deference to that, okay” they’ll stop, Bellucci said.
But he said the expense to the authority has been minimal: only about $40 a month.
The freebies have come to light this week as state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo put a halt to the free E-Z Pass tags given to board members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City and the state Thruway Authority.
Cuomo and other state officials have railed against the perks, saying that board members are uncompensated volunteers and should not get the benefits that paid employees of the authorities receive. Most transportation authorities also give their employees free bus passes.
“It is no longer acceptable for uncompensated board members to be paid quietly on the side,” Cuomo said Thursday in announcing that the MTA will strip E-Z Pass tags from former members and restrict use by current members.
“We will continue to root out this type of conduct in order to protect taxpayers of the state against any waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Cuomo’s aides said they will pursue other public authorities that provide free perks, yet hope many will relinquish the benefits on their own, as the Bridge Authority did.
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This entry was posted
on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 9:48 am by Joseph Spector.
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This is a good step in the right direction.
Another one for the AG: cops, their family members and those with PBA cards who typically get warnings instead of tickets while the rest of us suckers have to pay exorbitant amounts of money and risk losing our license if we go over the speed limit or drive drunk. Perhaps that nod-and-wink arrangement will go away too, eventually. Not to mention the politicians who typically don’t get tickets either.
What about Metro North? Everyone knows that Metro-North employees have been riding free for decades.
Please, let’s stop that too.
I think for our safety’s sake, it’s a benefit to the public to have unpaid, armed peace officers using public transportation, free or paid. Same with Metro North conductors, etc, who are no doubt going to stick up for harassed riders and their fellow workers when insanity prevails on some of these conveyances. If you were a retired ballplayer with a bar, would you charge Giambi, Jeter, and Joba for a couple beers, or would you be happy that they dropped in now and then, increasing your income and drawing a crowd?