Courtesy of MTA
By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Monday announced a historic agreement to baseline $75 million in funding for Fair Fares — which provides discounted Metro Cards to low-income New Yorkers — in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2023 budget.
This agreement represents the first time that the city has guaranteed annual funding for Fair Fares.
Launched in January 2019, Fair Fares offers a 50-percent discount on both subway and eligible bus fares, or Access-A-Ride to eligible New Yorkers with incomes up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level who are not eligible for other transit subsidies or benefits. According to the city’s most recent figures, more than 260,000 New Yorkers have enrolled in the program.
Adams’ Preliminary Budget adds $15.5 million to the program in the current year, bringing the FY 2022 investment to $68.5 million, and increases the city’s annual investment to $75 million annually in FY 2023 and in the outyears of the financial plan. Previously, the program was funded a year at a time through negotiations with City Council in connection with the Adopted Budget.
The highest previous expenditure under the Fair Fares program was $48.9 million in FY 2021. The Adams administration also noted that it will monitor ridership and programmatic demand and, if needed, can adjust funding in the future.
“Affordable access to our public transit system is essential to our recovery from the pandemic, and to achieving equity at all times,” said Adams. “I thank Mayor Adams for taking this great first step to baseline Fair Fares, now making it a permanent part of the budget for the first time. The Council remains committed to returning the program to its original funding level, and if uptake of the program reaches the budgeted amount before the end of the fiscal year, additional funds should be made available to meet the transportation needs of New Yorkers. In order for this program to be successful, a stronger commitment and focus on outreach than the one taken by the previous administration is needed, and the Council is a willing partner to help advance those efforts. I applaud my Council colleagues who have expressed their strong support for Fair Fares and for helping to increase awareness across the city, so it benefits more New Yorkers and communities.”
“The Fair Fares program is a lifeline for low-income New Yorkers struggling with transit affordability. Our research shows that awareness of the program is low citywide, with only 35 percent of eligible New Yorkers taking advantage of it,” said David R. Jones, board member, Metropolitan Transportation Authority; president and CEO, Community Service Society, which led the campaign to establish the program in 2019. “We applaud Mayor Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and the City Council for committing to fund this critical program in the budget, and to make it a permanent budget line item going forward, so our public transit system serves as a gateway to economic opportunity for all New Yorkers, and not a barrier. And we look forward to working with our elected officials to raise public awareness of Fair Fares across the city.”
