Filed under: Daily Commuter | Tags: budget cuts, MTA, MTA board members, travel perks, vote
Well, the vote came in and most of them casted the correct vote. The new policy only allows free travel to current MTA board members who are traveling for official business, which I don’t object to. There was one person who didn’t cast a vote, I guess he objected to it without committing to a “No”, and there were other people who didn’t even show up to vote; for more info click here.
And then there is a man by the name of Warren S. Dolny who used to be an MTA board member, and threatened to sue after the vote was announced! You can read more about this here. He claims that the free rides was promised to him for life by the MTA. Who the hell decided to give current and former board member lifetime free travel perks back when they established the board especially when they no longer serve as a board member?!!
Even though the amount that racked up may not put a dent in the lack of funds for improving the quality of the MTA system, it is frustrating to the everyday commuter to know that while we have to pay more and more for using the trains and buses, these board members who can more than afford to pay for a round trip fare is crying about having to pay like the rest of us. In fact, you can read about how much these travel perks rack up to here.
Another thing that annoyed me when the vote was announced was a comment by Board Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger. He claimed this travel perk issue was a distraction from dealing with the real issue at hand, which is that the MTA does not have the expected funds to execute the various improvement projects. That claim is so wrong and clearly shows me that the MTA is just not doing that great of job with handling their financials. The amount of the travel perks may not be a lot of money in the large scheme of things but when the everyday commuter hears and reads about the MTA crying that they don’t have enough money and may need to raise the fare, we are going to be annoyed and frustrated with MTA. And then when it is revealed that MTA is just giving away money that should go into project improvements, YEAH, we are going to be pissed off!