Who gets a free ride with E-ZPass?

WASHINGTON - Did you know the local leaders who make toll road decisions in Maryland and Virginia are exempt from paying tolls?

In fact, thousands of state-owned vehicles in Maryland and Virginia have E-ZPass transponders that are paid for by the state.

As you'd expect, police, fire and emergency vehicles ride for free.

But in Maryland, so do the eight citizens appointed to the Maryland Transportation Authority and the Secretary of Transportation. The Maryland Transportation Authority is the agency that can authorize higher tolls.

In Virginia, the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner and the other 16 members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board receive free E-Z passes.

State-issued E-Z passes are only supposed to be used on official business, but both states acknowledge that they do not track their usage. Because state vehicles do not pay the tolls, the states say the only cost to taxpayers is for the individual transponders. A transponder costs $22 in Maryland and $25 in Virginia.

Maryland has approximately 11,600 transponders that are in circulation in various vehicles. Virginia has 36 E-ZPass Accounts associated with government officials, with 63 vehicles attached to those accounts.

Along with the transportation board, employees of the Virginia Department of Transportation, police and jail officials, members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, animal wardens and officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries are given free passes through tolls.

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