The New York Times reports, under the headline "8,000 M.T.A. Employees Made $100,000 Last Year": "a Long Island Rail Road conductor who retired in April, made $239,148." The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's chairman, Jay Walder, earns "$350,000 a year as chairman, as well as a $3,500 monthly housing allowance," the Times reports. That's even more than Peter Beinart makes at the City University of New York, though perhaps not on an hourly basis; Mr. Beinart's only in New York one day a week.
This as the MTA is slashing bus routes to save money, including the route my kids take home from school. It's outrageous, actually -- the government agency is being run for the benefit of the employees, rather than the transit-riding and taxpaying public. Good for the Manhattan Institute for exposing the data, which was picked up widely across the New York press today.