Pols: Fee Is ‘E-Z’ Money For MTA

If your car has E-Z Pass, you have been paying a $1 monthly fee to the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels since July 1 — and you probably didn’t even know it.
The monthly surcharge, which is used to help defray the program’s administrative and operational costs, has unleashed a bitter torrent of protest from local officials.
“To charge $12 a year for the ‘privilege’ of lending the MTA your money, amounts to government usury,” said an angry State Senator Toby Stavisky.
Calling the MTA fee, “nothing more than a back door tax,” Rep. Joe Crowley said that New Yorkers are “stretching their dollars to pay high gas and energy costs, and an extra $1 a month…could be put to better use.”
Electronic fare collection was first touted as an operational expense reducer that would also help cut waiting time and air pollution at crowded toll plazas.
Two thirds of the MTA’s bridges and tunnels connect with Queens.
And, according to Stavisky, motorists who do not use their E-Z Pass in a given month are still charged the $1 fee for that month.
MTA officials did not return requests for comment.