Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson have made a preliminary deal to fully fund half-price MetroCards for the poorest New Yorkers at a cost of about $212 million a year, sources said Thursday.
The sources said the city’s new fiscal 2019 budget will include a lower amount for the project — $106 million — to allow time to get the program up and running by January.
The deal would be a huge victory for the first-year speaker, who telegraphed very publicly that the “fair fares” were his No. 1 priority during budget negotiations with the mayor.
De Blasio had previously supported the intent of the initiative, but argued for other funding mechanisms.
Mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips denied there was a deal, saying, “We have more work to do.”
Officials have said that roughly 800,000 New Yorkers who earn less that the federal poverty line — $25,100 for a family of four — are eligible for the program.