Thruway Authority and Metropolitan Transit Authority board members have been illegally receiving free E-ZPass privileges for years, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said May 28, demanding the benefit be pulled.
A Thruway Authority spokeswoman said the authority discontinued the perk after receiving Cuomo’s opinion that the directors of such authorities, who are uncompensated, should not receive the benefit.
The MTA would like a third party to decide the issue and will take the matter to a judge, MTA Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger said. Cuomo’s office said it was prepared to bring the issue to court.
Current Thruway board members Erin Cotty, Kevin J. Plunkett, Jeffrey D. Williams and E. Virgil Conway have received free rides through tolls and bridges. Former board members Peter Tufo, Lou Tomson and Howard Steinberg also received the benefit.
Some Thruway employees also receive free E-ZPass, said Sarah Kampf, the Thruway Authority’s spokeswoman.
Kampf could not say how much the seven board members used the passes, but in recent years, Tomson, Tufo and Conway used them rarely.
Chairman John L. Buono and Frederick M. Howard did not take the perk, Kampf said.
At an MTA meeting on May 28, Hemmerdinger said "the practice of providing board members free access to the system they oversee dates back at least to the 1950s."
The authority has acted based on a 1992 law that has never been challenged until now, he said.
