It’s Day Three of E-ZPassgate. Let’s recap.

On 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 Wednesday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ordered the MTA to stop, and the MTA magnanimously complied.

Just kidding. The MTA vowed to take the issue to court, and now a state authority and the state’s top lawyer at an impasse.

As details about this ridiculous story have emerged, we’ve developed a clearer picture of the MTA perks. For instance, as William Neuman reports in The Times today, the free E-ZPass rides are valid only on MTA-controlled tolls. The board members have to pay Port Authority tolls out-of-pocket.

Meanwhile, the Daily News noted that public transit perks are included as well. MTA board members receive free lifetime passes for themselves+1 on Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road and free lifetime MetroCards too. Wouldn’t you want to get your hands on a free unlimited ride MetroCard valid forever?

So all this drama got me thinking: What are some of the other unreported MTA perks? One can only wonder…

Free rush hour crowds for life — If any MTA board members want to experience the joys of a crowded commute, they can use their free MetroCards to ride the subways during rush hour. It’s the experience of getting shoved around a packed subway car, and it’s free!

Free Sauna (Summer Only) — If any board members are feeling the strains of a busy day riding around the MTA bridges and tunnels for free, they could always duck into the subways during the summer for a nice sit in the sauna-like conditions underground. It’s a great way to sweat off a few pounds.

Free Waits – This one’s fairly self-explanatory.

So there you have it. Along with all the free stuff the MTA Board members — some of the most successful real estate barons in New York — receive come some great ancillary perks. The rest of us pay $2 (or less) per swipe for this benefits, but these folks can get them for free. I hope they consider that as they fight tooth and nail for the free E-ZPass benefits.

When 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 public transportation agency encouraging road use by its current and former board members. Second Ave. Sagas readers aren’t the only ones unhappy by the news; New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wasn’t pleased by the Daily News report, and he wants the MTA to rescind the free E-ZPasses.

Pete Donohue has the follow-up:

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo moved swiftly Tuesday to end the E-Z life for MTA board members, warning the authority to revoke the free travel perks. Just hours after the Daily News revealed how some 60 past and present board members – many of them multimillionaires – get the free tags for life, Cuomo’s office issued a stern warning that the practice is illegal.

Cuomo also told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to produce records of any other benefits doled out to board members who are supposed to “serve without salary or other compensation.”

The letter to the MTA, penned by top Cuomo aide Benjamin Lawsky, was titled “Illegal Compensation of Board Members.”

While the MTA has yet to respond to Cuomo’s missive, Straphangers Campaign head Gene Russianoff had some strong words for the agency. “If participation on the MTA board is uncompensated and motivated by public service, then it should be uncompensated,” he said. “If the MTA wants to say thank you, maybe they should give flowers and some chocolates to board members, not an E-ZPass worth many thousands of dollars.”

Hear, hear.

Over the past twenty years, New Yorkers have seen their subway fares increase by 100 percent from a base fare of $1.00 in 1988 to the $2.00 we pay today. Meanwhile, fines for breaking the subway rules have stagnated, and a perp caught jumping the turnstile today pays the same $60 today as he or she would have doled out in 1988. Now, considering law-abiding passengers are getting held up for more money, those fines just don’t seem, well, fair.

At least, that’s what New York City Transit thinks, and the agency is trying to increase fines levied on everything from subway vandalism to fare-jumpers and weapons charges. Brooke Naylor and Pete Donohue had more in the Daily News:

Fines for all bus and subway rule violations will likely go up, some doubling to $200, the Daily News has learned. Smoking, littering, vandalism, taking up two seats – you name it – NYC Transit wants the fines to go up since they haven’t risen in two decades.

NYC Transit President Howard Roberts on Thursday said he wants a stiffer penalty for fare-beating to serve as a deterrent. One source said fare-beating fines – now $60 – likely will be upped to roughly $100.

Sources said the authority is drafting higher penalties for all 45 types or categories of violations. Roberts said he’d like to double the maximum penalty of $100 now applied to four offenses: vandalism/obstructing train or bus traffic, committing “harmful acts,” carrying weapons and carrying explosives.

According to Naylor and Donohue, the MTA board will have to approve the higher fines, and some may require legislative action as well. It’s hard to see anyone voting against higher fines for quality-of-life violations in the subway.

While the MTA is doing all it can to draw in more revenue from the limited options available to it, this move seems to me like a no-brainer. And I can only wonder why it’s taken the transportation authority twenty years to act on this issue. After all, $60 in the 1988 is now worth nearly $109. We’re letting fare-jumpers off cheap these days.

Recycled MetroCard artwork photo by flickr user dM.nyc.

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.