Don’t horse trade the MTA

The Times reports today that Gov. Paterson appointed a lawyer and lobbyist to the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Isn’t there some State Dept of Sanitation they could fill with ghost patronage workers? It’s straight out of the The Wire (which I finally finished watching last night).

The MTA is too important to have its board–supposedly there to represent organized labor and transit and commuter rail riders–be filled with with non-transit riding hacks! Why isn’t Gene Russianoff on the board?

Even more strange (and corrupt), board members are not paid. But they’re obviously getting something out of this. And now that they don’t have their free Easy Pass, it must be something else. I don’t like it.