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It's been almost exactly two months since the fare hike for our city's public transportation went into full effect. Overnight, straphangers' wallets were a little heavier, facing a permanent $2.50 per ride fee as well as bumped-up prices for weeklies and monthlies. And presumably, no one was happy.

But there was another roadblock we'd now have to face collectively as commuters: a $1 fee if we decided to buy a new MetroCard instead of replenishing the value on our old one.

Naturally, it's a pain for those who've lost their golden tickets but the measure was an incentive snuck into the fare hike to discourage New Yorkers from wasting plastic (by the thousands). You would think we'd think twice about tossing our MetroCards into the trash once their lives ended. Turns out we didn't... and now the MTA is making much more money than expected from the tiny provision.

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WanderingtheWorld (www.LostManProject.com) via Compfight cc

Last week, the New York Times published a searing piece revealing that Con Edison, which is currently undergoing an investigation for its handling of superstorm Sandy, was paying its top executives more than $600,000 in extra bonuses for 2012.

"In our judgment, the company performed in exemplary fashion," Con Ed compensation committee chairman George Campbell Jr. told the paper, despite the fact that it took the utilities company four to seven days to fully restore power to 1.1 million of its customers in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Both Governor Cuomo and City Council Speaker Quinn have criticized Con Ed for its executive reward system and Sandy dysfunction, but today the governor asked Con Ed to suspend its bonus payout. "No ratepayer should pay a single penny for bonuses given to senior utility executives, especially for bonuses awarded for their performance during Sandy," the governor said in a statement.

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Several of New York City's mayoral hopefuls released their tax returns or reported their 2012 income this week to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Below is a quick breakdown of what the candidates made in 2012 by sector, though the figures for Sal Albanese, Anthony Weiner (who hasn't formally announced his candidacy), and Adolfo Carrión Jr. are actually total household income, including spouses' earnings.

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G is for greenbacks, baby.

It's been a long, mean winter for the MTA. In 2010, the agency's budget woes led to a 7.5 percent fare increase, 1,000 lost jobs, and draconian service cuts across the boroughs. In 2011, Governor Cuomo reached an agreement with unions to freeze wages, and 2012 got by, barely, without cuts or hikes.

But now for some good news: 2013 is looking way, way better. And as the Voice's John Surico mentioned last month, there's even a little unexpected cash involved--the 2013-2014 budget passed in Albany surpassed the MTA's expectations by some sweet $40 million. Now, the obvious question: How the hell do we spend it?

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Who said the recession was over?

Coming off the news that New York City's homelessness population is at Great Depression levels, the Bloomberg administration released a report this weekend that hammers that whole neo-Gilded-Age income disparity issue home. In 2011, the population of the city living in or near poverty levels rose three points from 2009, reaching an astounding 46 percent. That means that nearly 3 million inhabitants come within 150 percent of the poverty threshold. This was two years ago.

And that imbalance is so clear that you can see it in the subways with a recent infographic provided to us by the New Yorker. Almost half of the greatest city in the world lives in or near poverty levels.

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You might've already seen this little snippet released by New York City Is Not For Sale 2013 (that's a mouthful).The video opens to a "smoke-filled room" with four stools in it, where the viewer would assume the City Council Speaker makes shady deals with business-type folk. She's charged with a pseudo-liberal appeal that is more rhetoric than substance.

It's a part of a million dollar "A.B.Q.--Anybody But Quinn" campaign, which has been put together by the union forces left over from Bloomberg's 2009 re-election. It'll be on major cable networks in the days to come as the first notable attack campaign launched thus far (and this early) in the mayoral race. Also, it represents the political landscape of a City Hall race post-Citizens United, where money and politics are two sides of the same shitty sword.

The electoral aim of the video is Quinn's worst fear: to be painted as Bloomberg Jr.

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In January, Gov. Cuomo reiterated a point in his State of the State address that he's made since his first day on office: New York needs to completely overhaul its campaign finance system ASAP.

"We must enact campaign finance reform because people believe that campaigns are financed by someone else at exorbitant rates," he told the audience. Except, in a modern political landscape where voices are heard through dollar signs, his plan has not made it out of the rhetorical stage.

But maybe a boost from a victorious White House team will help a bit.

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Yesterday, we reported on Mayor Bloomberg's announcement to spend $12 million on a campaign set forth by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns to counter the NRA in battleground states. The move is the largest yet from Hizzoner to translate ideology into action on the topic of gun control and, in effect, will provide enough monetary fodder to keep up with the notorious Second Amendment group.

But this is probably the last reaction the mayor expected to see.

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Who knew the Comptroller would come somewhat close (read: nowhere near) to Bloombergian levels with his finances for City Hall?

After only announcing his official candidacy two weeks ago, the New York Post has reported that John Liu is in line for $3.4 million in public matching funds from the Campaign Finance Board for his campaign. Regardless of the fact that the agency is still investigating Mr. Liu's comptroller campaign in 2009 - it is uncertain whether this will harm his public funding efforts in the future.

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You wouldn't believe this if you read the news the other day that the homeless population in New York City is at its highest rate since the Great Depression. But...

According to London's Daily Mail, New York City has surpassed the British capital as the most appetizing spot for the super-rich (oh, and the fact its Mayor just scored big points on the Forbes Billionaires' List adds to this a bit). The study was done by a property agent known as Agent Frank, which surveyed High New Worth Individuals -- slang for all sorts of bourgeois terms -- and came to the conclusion that the rich are all flocking to New York.

The reasons given by the newspaper are pretty straightforward: London's super-rich are afraid of a mansion tax, the Eurozone is in the shitter, New York is awesome and property prices here a bit cheaper. Tell that last part to those of us who are still dealing with this whole highest-rent-in-the-nation thing.

Welcome to your new home, guys. Get comfy.

[jsurico15@gmail.com/@JSuricz]