Penny wise, pound foolish

According to a story on Bloomberg.com by Chris Dolmetsch, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York State has revoked about 21,000 free passes, previously used by ninety organizations in New York City, including:

the mayor's office, the city's emergency management office, the district attorneys and borough presidents.
The move will generate about $10 million in additional revenue for the authority and won't slow police, firefighters and ambulances crossing the bridges and tunnels in emergencies, Executive Director Elliot Sander said. "I'm not happy about having to do this,'' Sander told reporters after today's board meeting at the authority's midtown Manhattan headquarters. "It's an accounting issue. It's something we need to do given the current state of the MTA's finances.''
Revoking the passes is part of a larger effort by the authority, which also runs the city's buses and subways and the Long Island and Metro-North commuter railroads, to cut costs and boost revenue as it faces a budget deficit projected as high as $1 billion in 2009. "We're not singling out anybody,'' said Vice Chairman David Mack, one of the seven who voted to revoke the passes. "We're trying to do it across the board. We're in dire straits and every little bit helps.''
The move also comes about three months after the authority voted to revoke dozens of free passes on its bridges, buses, trains and tunnels for current and former board members after state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo objected to the perk.
The city's delegation to the board cast four of the six votes against revoking the passes, along with members Norman Seabrook, president of the union representing New York City correction officers, and Mitchell Pally, the board's representative for the Suffolk County Executive's office.
The move will affect about 21,000 free passes, some of which had been given to the city's fire and police departments, said Joyce Mulvaney, a spokeswoman for the authority's bridges and tunnels. About 3,300 passes issued to current and former bridge and tunnel workers won't be revoked as they are provided as part of contract agreements.
The authority operates the Bronx-Whitestone, Cross Bay Veterans Memorial, Henry Hudson, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial, Throgs Neck, Triborough and Verrazano-Narrows bridges and the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels.

Rico says just another typical New York graft-ridden program, but taking them away from the cops and firemen won't be a popular move...