NEW YORK CITY -- More than 8,200 staffers at New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority earned more than $100,000 each last year, including dozens who doubled their pay with overtime, according to an analysis of payroll records reported in the New York Daily News.

Many of those in the six-figure club were police officers, commuter train conductors, foremen and train engineers whose average overtime ranged between $79,000 and $103,000, the report by the Empire Center for New York State Policy said.

"You can't argue MTA workers are poorly paid," said E.J. McMahon, Empire Center director.

The MTA has about 68,000 workers.

New York City Transit, the bus and subway division, comprises the bulk of the workforce but fewer than a dozen of the 100 highest-paid workers are in it, the report found.

Nearly 25 of the highest-paid MTA staffers were on the headquarter's payroll; more than half of those were police officers, detectives, lieutenants and sergeants in the MTA Police Department.

California grabs $$$

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A state appeals court has ruled that California officials illegally siphoned away billions of dollars from mass transit in the last two years to balance the state budget.

The decision by a panel of judges in the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento would put the state on the hook for $2.5 billion in transfers made in the last two years, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance.

Nearly $1 billion more in such transfers is included in the 2009-10 budget under consideration in the legislature.

Palmer said the state would appeal to the California Supreme Court within 30 days.

"You bet we're gonna appeal," Palmer said, adding that the state would ask for a stay of the ruling, which comes as elected leaders grapple with a projected $24-billion deficit.

Stimulus spending

WEST COVINA, Calif. -- Foothill Transit has approved spending $259,141 in federal stimulus money to buy a pair of automated wheel polishers from an Australian company.

In February, the transit agency put out a request for bids on wheel polishers, and one company responded - Vehicle Inspection Systems of Australia.

Foothill then received a waiver from the Federal Transportation Administration to buy the polishers from a foreign company.

Foothill Transit Board of Directors President Michael De La Torre said the polishers dramatically reduce the time it takes to buff bus wheels. "It streamlines our operation, upgrades our efficiency and gets buses on the road," he said. "It cuts down time. We're trying to improve schedule adherence."

The polishers also make it easier to identify cracks in the wheels, said Felicia Friesema, a spokeswoman for Foothill Transit.

Small-government advocates questioned the prudence of the purchase. "If we were to look at the highest-priorities for FTA, I don't know that this would fit," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste.

Meanwhile, officers patrolling downtown Salt Lake City TRAX platforms and FrontRunner commuter-rail parking lots now are whizzing around on Segway electric scooters. The agency spent $7,900 apiece for six of the two-wheeled, upright gadgets, with all of the money coming through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Federal Transit Administration's rules for disbursing the money required that part of it go to security, UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said, and the Utah agency spent its share on the Segways.

"It's a very quick and easy way for officers to move around downtown and also patrol the parking lots and FrontRunner," Carpenter said.

It's also further evidence of frivolous government waste to critics of the $787 billion stimulus spending.

"Sounds like they got some fun toys," said state Rep. John Dougall. "Wouldn't bicycles be more effective? If they're talking downtown Salt Lake, bikes would be healthier and more cost-effective."

T says no cell phones

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the large public transit system known as the T, has extended its ban on cell phone use by bus drivers and train operators to private bus services that contract with the agency.

The agency began cracking down on cell phone possession and use after a Green Line trolley rear-ended another trolley in May, injuring 50 people. The trolley driver told authorities he was texting just before the crash.

The MBTAs new policy calls for termination for a first offense of talking on a cell phone or texting while on duty on a bus or train. An operator who is found in possession of a cell phone will be punished by a 10-day suspension. MBTA contractors carrying passengers on the commuter rail, paratransit, commuter boat, and private bus services had been issued similar directives.