NEW YORK, NY May 28, 2008 —The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is going to court to defend the right of its board members to receive lifetime EZ Passes that permit them to avoid paying bridge and tunnel tolls. The announcement came a day after Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the free EZ passes were illegal.

WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

Some 59 current and former board members currently enjoy free lifetime EZ Passes, each of which would be worth about five thousand dollars a year to a commuter who drives into Manhattan for work.

MTA chairman Dale Hemmerdinger defended the practice, saying that board members have been receiving free access to the transit system since the 1950s. But Cuomo did not make an issue of the free subway rides ... only of free EZ Passes. He said the EZ Passes qualified as compensation ... and state law stipulates that MTA board members are supposed to serve without pay.

Critics meanwhile called the court challenge hypocritical, since the MTA is supposed to be encouraging the public to take mass transit instead of driving.

For WNYC, I'm Matthew Schuerman.