Frank Powers flip flops on his constituent paid E-ZPass perk

Frank Powers quickly backtracks on giving up his constituent funded E-ZPass;

Board members will vote on revocation of their lifetime privileges and a policy requiring them to use passes only when they're on official business.

Several members said they might reject such a resolution.

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No one pledged to reject the resolution outright - since it has not yet been finished - but several members also said they were "leaning" against restricting their perks.

"I believe we should have an outside counsel review the law," said board member Francis Powers.

Why have outside counsel review this? Well it seems the NY Attorney General is looking to shut the practice down and Powers may want to fight that;

After an exclusive Daily News report on the number of free E-ZPass tags granted to past and present MTA board members, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office warned the authority the freebies are illegal - and told the MTA to halt the free-travel privileges.

That is a far way from his previous statements that giving up his perks were the right thing to do;

With the MTA being a favorite punching bag of borough residents and lawmakers, Powers said that he would surrender the free E-ZPass he received as a perk of his service on the authority board and would reimburse the MTA for any tolls he's rung up.

"It's the right thing to do," Powers said.

Meanwhile his fellow board member says they deserve to keep their perks;

An MTA board member said yesterday he and his colleagues should be allowed to keep their free transportation privileges to encourage them to endure the "inconvenience" of riding trains.