Free rides for Turnpike employees
Remember when the local media practically set their hair on fire because some employees of the Delaware River Port Authority were getting free EZ Pass privileges to cross Delaware river bridges?
Well, apparently all 2,000 employees of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission get to ride the pike for free for business and personal use, and the Turnpike is going to court to avoid saying how much revenue it loses this way.
I missed it, but apparently the Turnpike’s former CEO Joe Brimmeier told the Harrisburg Patriot News last summer that employees skipped tolls via EZ Pass or by showing their employee badges.
When the newspaper sought information from the turnpike on employee EZ Pass accounts, the State Open Records Office reviewed the case and told the pikers they had to cough up the data, though they could redact the account-holders’ names.
The Turnpike Authority, a longstanding state patronage haven, went to court and earlier this week got a commonwealth court order overturning the Open Records Office ruling, so they don’t have to reveal the account records.
Read the Harrisburg Patriot’s story here.
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