Home MTA Absurdity MTA board members — past and present — love their perks

MTA board members — past and present — love their perks

by Benjamin Kabak

Peter Kalikow may be, thankfully, gone from his post atop the MTA Board, but he’s still irking subway watchers in New York City.

According to a report in today’s Daily News, Kalikow is just one of many current and former MTA board members enjoying free E-ZPass tags for life at the expense of New York City taxpayers. But Kalikow’s case is extra special: He gets tags for eight of his 40 cars so he doesn’t have to switch out tags based on whatever it is the former public transit official is driving.

Pete Donohue reports:

The former chairman isn’t the only member of the MTA millionaires club who takes advantage of the freebie. As of early May, 21 board members held 33 tags, and MTA records show 37 former board members have 62 passes.

Board Vice Chairman David Mack, a real estate magnate, has six of the special E-ZPass tags, which are orange, not white, like those on windshields of paying customers.

Fellow board Vice Chairman Andrew Saul, director of a national chain of apparel stores, has four tags, according to records provided by the MTA under the Freedom of Information Act. Mack has 11 cars, his assistant said. Saul, as is his custom, didn’t return a reporter’s telephone call.

“When riders learn about these free all-you-can-drive passes, they become very skeptical about an MTA board that decides the cost of a MetroCard or how much subway service they get,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.

Of course, the MTA board members see nothing wrong with the perks. “Everybody on the board serves for nothing,” Kalikow said. “They do a lot of hard work and it’s a way of saying thank you.”

That’s quite the thank you note.

Now, I can understand giving perks to those people who have served the city in a public transportation capacity. Free MetroCards for life would encourage mass transit use. A singular E-ZPass per board member would seem reasonable if less desirable for the anti-car contingency.

But at a time when the MTA is searching for cash and the agency stands to benefit more from having fewer cars on the road, rewarding multi-millionaires with free E-ZPasses for life for more than one car per person seems a bit excessive to me.

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9 comments

Wayne's World May 27, 2008 - 3:39 pm

What does the MTA have to do with EZ Pass? Offhand, I can’t think of a single thing for which EZ Pass is used that falls under MTA jurisdiction. Am I missing something? This sounds totally nuts.

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Benjamin Kabak May 27, 2008 - 3:42 pm

In New York City, most of the E-ZPass tolls are MTA-controlled and operated, and the MTA draws in the revenue from the tolls. The exceptions, as this map shows, are the Hudson River crossings where the tolls are only in New Jersey and are thus controlled by the Port Authority.

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Mischa G. May 27, 2008 - 7:30 pm

You know if those special E-ZPasses get you through the Port Authority tolls free too?

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Benjamin Kabak May 27, 2008 - 11:11 pm

I’d imagine that they work the same way a regular E-ZPass does, and these folks just have the bill sent to MTA HQ.

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Julia May 27, 2008 - 4:23 pm

There’s just something deeply wrong about a man who has FORTY CARS being the head of a PUBLIC TRANSIT authority.

Why would the MTA want to subsidize anybody’s driving? A free pass to use the subways and Metro-North lines would be plenty valuable and wouldn’t undermine the purpose of the MTA.

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Todd May 28, 2008 - 12:09 am

Awesome. Simply awesome…

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Links for 2008-05-28 | Impatient Sufferance | Let facts be submitted to a candid world May 28, 2008 - 12:38 pm

[…] MTA board members — past and present — love their perks (tags: Transportation) […]

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Second Ave. Sagas | Blogging the NYC Subways » Blog Archive » Andrew Cuomo does not like those free E-ZPasses May 28, 2008 - 12:41 pm

[…] I posted on the MTA Board’s free E-ZPass perk yesterday, a few outraged commenters expressed their disbelief at this overwhelming generosity of a […]

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Second Ave. Sagas | Blogging the NYC Subways » Blog Archive » The unexplored MTA Board perks May 29, 2008 - 12:01 am

[…] Tuesday, the Daily News reported on the free E-ZPasses for life that MTA board members, current and former, received in exchange for their public service. On […]

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