Fare help now!
Poor can’t wait for millionaires’ tax, Blaz told
SOCIAL JUSTICE groups are pressing Mayor de Blasio for a meeting on a half-price subway fare for struggling New Yorkers that doesn’t depend on a millionaires’ tax.
In a letter with more than 100 signatures to be delivered Tuesday to de Blasio, members of 11 organizations — including the transit advocacy groups Riders Alliance and Straphangers Campaign — ask for a sitdown to discuss the discount MetroCard proposal known as the Fair Fares campaign.
De Blasio has said he supports the Fair Fares effort, but will only fund it through a tax on high-income New Yorkers that must be approved in Albany.
But struggling New Yorkers need relief now, argue groups serving the city’s poorest, including New York Communities for Change and Citizen Action NY.
“Low-income New Yorkers cannot wait for Albany to pass a millionaires’ tax to fund this necessary subsidy,” the letter said. “As we wait, our inability to afford a MetroCard prevents us from attending our college classes, jobs and job interviews, doctors’ appointments and more.”
Darlene Jackson, a member of the Riders Alliance, appeared stumped over de Blasio’s reluctance to cover the $212 million discount fare tab for 800,000 New Yorkers at the poverty line — which is $24,339 for a family of four.
“Honestly, I’m disappointed,” she said. “This is pretty much common sense. The money is available.”
Courtney Miller, 33, a member of Citizen Action New York who signed the letter, said shelling out money for a monthly MetroCard would mean cereal for breakfast instead of eggs.
But the former child welfare services worker said she knows families she helped have struggled even more.
“What I was going through was nothing compared to what they were going through,” she said. “A parent never wants to have to tell their child, ‘I can’t make it this week because I can’t afford to get on a train.’ ”
De Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein referred the Daily News to comments the mayor made last Thursday at an unrelated news conference.
“We’ll certainly be talking to the Council about the Fair Fares, but I think the best way to solve that is the millionaires’ tax,” he said.
Fair Fares will be a budget fight between de Blasio and the City Council.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson and 43 members back the campaign, with funding in lawmakers’ budget proposal.
“The City has the ability to fund #FairFares, which would provide price MetroCards for some of the poorest New Yorkers, and I will keep fighting for its inclusion” in the budget, Johnson tweeted after a budget hearing Monday.