The MTA has given out approximately 24,000 free E-Z passes, most of which have gone to city agencies. Unfortunately for straphangers and those that drive our bridges and tunnels and pay the fare, we are left with the cost. The MTA is yet again looking at another fare increase in two years, but perhaps there is a better way of getting the money, at least some of it.
From The NY Daily News:
The MTA is planning fare and toll hikes in 2010, but they could be put on the table for next year because of budget gaps. Given the MTA's shortfall, fare hikes could come around next year - and Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said the city should pony up some dough.
"The City of New York should reimburse the agency's cost, as it now does in part for discounted fares for city students and senior citizens," Russianoff said.[...]
For decades, the MTA has granted free passage to government agencies that "provide services directly to us ... to save public money by avoiding the need for these agencies to budget public funds for tolls," the MTA's bridge and tunnel division said.
This really is a question of fiscal management, because the MTA is not saving the public money by giving the city those passes free of charge. The money is merely coming from the public in other ways. The MTA is funded by the state's tax base and by those that ride the trains everyday. The thing of the matter is, if the city is using the E-Z Passes, they should pay for them.
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