Patrons ride the number 7 subway train. | AP Photo/Frank Franklin II Move to subsidize subway fares for poor people gains political momentum

In 2017, with his reelection campaign underway, Mayor Bill de Blasio will face a thorny policy issue: whether to sign on to a proposal to subsidize MetroCards for poor people.

It’s an initiative supported by two of his three appointees to the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and his possible mayoral rival, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. It fits neatly into de Blasio's anti-income inequality agenda, a majority of City Council members have come out in support of it, and on October 19, the New York City Council’s Progressive Caucus made it a budget priority for the next fiscal year.


The Progressive Caucus comprises a majority of the Council’s budget negotiating team and has had prior success in translating its budget priorities into law.

“Whether legislatively or through the budget process, it's important we get this done next year, with fares set to rise again,” said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a Progressive Caucus member who chairs the legislative body’s transportation committee.

The proponents of “Fair Fares,” as the proposal is known, want New York City to subsidize half-price bus and subway fares for New York City residents who fall at or below the federal poverty line. In a study, the Community Service Society, a prominent anti-poverty organization, and Riders Alliance, a grassroots transit advocacy group, estimated that roughly 360,000 riders would take advantage of the subsidy, costing the city about $194 million a year.

Those riders, meanwhile, would save up to $700 a year, assuming they bought 30-day unlimited MetroCards every month.

But they often don’t. As the study notes, those sorts of MetroCards are often out of reach reach for poor riders, since they can’t lay out the money necessary to pay for them. Instead, they often find themselves choosing between bus fare and other necessities.

Similar discounts are already available to senior citizens and New Yorkers with disabilities.

David Jones, the president and CEO of the Community Service Society and a de Blasio appointee to the MTA board, said he does not know how the mayor will ultimately respond. The mayor’s office didn’t offer much enlightenment this week.

“This proposal will be evaluated as part of the fare-setting process for the MTA, as well as the State and City budgets," Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said.

Nor has Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito taken a position on the matter.

Jones argues this is the single most effective and immediate action the city can take to alleviate the plight of New York City’s poor, without having to seek permission from Albany.

He said the city currently spends millions of dollars a year targeting fare-beaters, most of them Black or Latino, something Jones likened to a plot line from "Les Miserables."

“It’s Victor Hugo — we’re going to go after people stealing bread," he said.

The city is also planning to spend $2.5 billion on a light rail along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, an initiative Jones supports but also notes is much more expensive than the proposal he's making.

“I think it’s a great idea, but it doesn’t hit income inequality,” he said of the light rail. “It helps my daughter, who’s a millennial and doing fine.”