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MTA: Bridge & Tunnel Workers To Pay All Tolls

Up To 21,000 City And State Employees Will Lose Freebies

Subway Riders Express Outrage At Impending Fare Hikes

NEW YORK (CBS) ― It's the death knell of a long-treasured perk. Faced with socking commuters with a double whammy of two more fare hikes, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has decided to make thousands of city, state and county workers actually pay to cross its nine bridges and tunnels.

Free E-ZPasses cost the MTA some $14 million per year. But no more. Faced with serious budget gaps, that's one gravy train that has finally ground to a halt.

"We are proposing to charge official city, state and county vehicles for bridge and tunnel crossings that currently travel at no cost," MTA Executive Director Eliot Sander said.

There are approximately 24,000 freebie tags issued by the MTA, and present and former bridge and tunnel workers will keep them. Those expected to be dropped from the gravy train include some 21,000 city and state employees.

This as MTA officials expressed regret that they have to hit commuters with two new fare hikes.

"I'm upset," Sander said.

Expect an 8 percent hike on July 1, 2009, and a 5 percent hike 18 months later on Jan. 1, 2011. MTA officials said later that the second fare hike could be pushed back several months.

But the MTA's need for so much money to offset rising fuel costs and a bad economy prompted calls for government officials to take another look at using congestion pricing – charging fees to enter the Midtown Manhattan business district – to avoid fare hikes.

"We continue to be in favor of congestion pricing," said Transport Workers Union president Roger Toussaint.

How do New Yorkers feel about the plan, a favorite of Mayor Michael Bloomberg that was soundly rejected this year by the State Legislature?

"People should stay where they are, stop coming into the city in droves," one woman said.

"If they want to show their commitment to the city, then everyone of those execs should take about $100,000 off their salary," added another.

"They're really, really squeezing the little guy," a man said. "You don't start from the bottom, you start from the top."

Congestion pricing will be revisited by a blue ribbon commission appointed by Gov. David Paterson to come up with a funding source for the MTA.

The big question is whether the MTA's huge financial needs are enough to change lawmakers' minds.

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