MTA officials appropriated the surplus money to later years ' budgets without notifying riders or the MTA board members when the 50-cent hike was being considered , he said .
But MTA officials appropriated the money to the 2003 and 2004 budgets without notifying riders or even the MTA board members considering the 50-cent hike , Hevesi found .
process of analyzing data to identify trends, patterns, and other useful information