Mayor Bill de Blasio took a victory lap Tuesday on an agreement to provide half-fare MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers — which he initially didn’t want the city to fund.
“People in this city are going to experience for the first time the ‘Fair Fare,’” he said at a rally at the Fulton Center transit hub in lower Manhattan. “And that is going to be a big step towards [creating] the kind of city that really . . . includes everyone . . . I don’t want to live in a city where someone is desperate to get a job, but they can’t afford to get to the job interview.”
The cut-rate cards were included in the $89.2 billion budget deal announced Monday by the mayor and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who demanded the city pony up the funds. De Blasio wanted the money to come from a new millionaire’s tax, but couldn’t get Albany’s required approval.
Eventually, the mayor agreed to spend $106 million of city money to launch the program next January.
When fully implemented, it will cost about $212 million a year.
About 800,000 New Yorkers living in households below the federal poverty line of $25,000 annual income for a family of four will be eligible for the reduced fares.
The savings will average $726 a year, officials said.