Readers: A while back, I started searching for the answer to one of the great mysteries of life: What do the people who collect E-ZPass payments in advance do with the interest they receive on our money?
I’m getting a little closer to an answer. But my suspicions are also getting greater. I’ll explain.
As any user of E-ZPass knows, the toll-collecting system bills customers’ credit cards before the customer actually incurs tolls. In my case, I think it puts around $250 on my card anytime the total in my account dips below a certain level. And E-ZPass can raise that amount anytime it wants.
I’m all right with that. I don’t want a separate credit card bill (and processing charge) every time I go through the Lincoln Tunnel.
But what I want to know is where my $250 (and everyone else’s prepaid E-ZPass money) is held. And what becomes of the millions of dollars in interest this horde of cash should be earning each year?
Does it just get thrown into a big pool of dough and used as a general expense for whichever agency’s E-ZPass you have? Or is this an account that has little oversight and can be used at the discretion of whomever is running the agency that hands out a particular E-ZPass?
In other words, is this money used for Christmas parties and junkets, or for fixing broken E-ZPass machines and paying workers?
Everything could be on the up-and-up. But the fact that it is so difficult to get information on these accounts is making me more and more curious.
If you didn’t know already, many agencies around the country issue E-ZPass. You could have one issued in New Jersey or in New York, and each works in the other state, and most other states.
Even in New York there are different E-ZPass issuers. You could have one from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) or the New York State Thruway Authority, for instance.
After months of asking, I finally got a partial answer to my questions from the Office of the New York State Comptroller regarding what the TBTA and the Thruway Authority do with the money.
“Both authorities (the TBTA and Thruway Authority) invest any available funds which are not immediately needed for expenses (e.g., overnight or longer) for the benefit of the authority,” was the answer I got.
Ah, that raises more questions.
What, exactly, does “for the benefit of the authority” mean? I get it, the money is invested — as it should be. But again, what is the interest on that money used for?
And is the comptroller’s office talking about the $250 taken from me and everyone else by credit card, or the interest earned on the millions in stockpiled money that is held at any given time — before you and I actually take a trip over a bridge or through a tunnel and incur an expense?
Look, I’m happy someone at the comptroller’s office actually got back to me. The folks who have control over our EZPass accounts aren’t exactly an open book. In fact, I’m not sure anyone looks at their books.
I’m still digging.
Dear John: When a corporation finds itself with its market saturated or otherwise cut off — and it can’t find a new market — should it “expand” its existing market by lowering prices?
I know this is heresy, but aside from greed, why not? R.C.
Dear R.C.: Sure, it should cut prices to get more customers.
The problem is, if it is a public corporation and it can’t find a way to lower costs to offset the price cut, then Wall Street won’t be happy with the lower profit margin.
And its stock prices will suffer. And that means that the owners of the stock — public shareholders and executives of the company — will be unhappy.
So finding new markets and new products for the old markets is the better way to go. At least then you can razzmatazz Wall Street into thinking you have a plan.
