Council – We’ll deal fare cards
THE CITY COUNCIL proposed paying hundreds of millions of dollars for half-price MetroCards for poor New Yorkers in its budget response, Speaker Corey Johnson said Tuesday.
The budget plan will include $212 million in city money to pay for the discount fares for residents living under the poverty level — an idea Mayor de Blasio has said he supports — though he doesn’t agree the city should pick up the tab.
“This is not us subsidizing the MTA,” Johnson said of the proposal, part of the Council’s response to the mayor’s budget. “This is us helping low-income New Yorkers.”
And it will be one of the “pillars” of the negotiation between the Council and de Blasio over a $89 billion budget, he said.
“The mayor, when he ran for mayor in 2013, he talked about the tale of two cities,” Johnson said. “For folks who can’t afford the subway every single day, I think that shows the city that they’re living in.”
The Council’s proposal also would grant a $400 property tax rebate to home, condominium and co-op owners who earn less than $150,000 a year.
The discount MetroCards would be available to people living below the federal poverty line, which is $25,100 for a family of four.
Transit advocates have pushed the idea for years, but both the state and city have balked at paying for it.
De Blasio has said he supports the idea but wants it paid for through a state-enacted tax on the rich, which would also bring in money for subway repairs — something he reiterated following Johnson’s comments on the City Council proposal.
“City resources have declined in the last few weeks,” he said, citing cuts from Albany. “So I understand the City Council wants to achieve something noble, but it’s going to be a very straightforward conversation with them about the money we have available and how far it’ll reach.”
The speaker has said the millionaires’ tax is not going to happen, so the city should foot the bill.
“I don’t see that happening. It didn’t happen during the state budget. I don’t see it happening during this legislative session, and we believe that we should take city dollars and resources to fund this,” he said during an appearance on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show.”