Illegal Thruway Authority Payments Uncovered
The New York State Thruway Authority was illegally paying health insurance premiums for its board members up until a few months ago, the state comptroller announced yesterday.
The comptroller's criticism recalled a recent scandal involving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, when board members were found to be inappropriately receiving free subway rides. The Thruway Authority stopped making the payments for its board members, who are supposed to work for free, in March.
The Thruway Authority covered more than $50,000 in premiums for five current and former board members since February 2007, when the attorney general's office issued an opinion clarifying that the practice was illegal.
"This is just one more example of the need for the Thruway Authority to look at its own finances first before it hits up the public for more money," Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement.
The Thruway Authority is responsible for overseeing New York's superhighways and canals. It stopped making the insurance payments after the comptroller's audit began, according to both agencies.
"The authority no longer pays for health insurance benefits under NYSHIP for uncompensated board members," a spokesman for the authority said, referring to the government-administered insurance program.
The research director of the Citizens Budget Commission, Charles Brecher, said the Thruway Authority's conduct stems from the same misplaced attitude that got the MTA into trouble.
"Authority board members are supposed to be doing this as a public service and not for compensation, and it seems pretty clear that health insurance is a form of compensation," he said.
The finding about board members' compensation was part of a larger study of whether certain state agencies are administering insurance coverage properly. The study found that the agencies were generally following the rules, but that some, including the Thruway Authority, were not checking to make sure that the employees' family members were eligible for the benefits they received.
