City Council Calls for $50 million to Subsidize Half-Price Metro Cards for Low-Income New Yorkers

Queens resident Samuel Santaella rides two buses and one train every morning to take his younger sister to school in Glendale, a neighborhood that’s an hour-and-a-half from their home in St. Albans.

Santaella, 23, pays $121 a month for a full-price MetroCard -- that’s almost a quarter of his family’s living expenses.

The New York City Council has its way, low-income New Yorkers like Santaella will soon get a break. Last Tuesday, council members approved a budget proposal that would provide $50 million to fund a pilot program that would allow low-income riders to pay half price for Metro Cards. Transit advocates and low-income riders are hoping the program will get passed.

“We’re still economically suffering,” said Santaella. Paying less on transit “will help us like you have no idea,” he added.

According to a report last year published by Community Service Society, an advocacy group for low-income New Yorkers, one in four low-income New Yorkers say they can’t afford a MetroCard. Transit advocacy groups such as Community Service Society and Riders Alliance have been working closely with City Council members on the pilot program that would target residents living under the federal poverty line, which is about $24,000 for a family of four.

By 2020 transit advocates hope to fully fund a $200 million program that would cover the 800,000 New Yorkers ages 18 to 64 who live under the poverty line, according to the city council proposal.

One obstacle to the program is Mayor Bill de Blasio, who opposes city funding. According to the Mayor’s Office, it provides nearly $1 billion annually in direct subsidies to support MTA operations. The City also pays $60 million annually to help subsidize subway fares for schoolchildren, elderly, and disabled riders. De Blasio believes funding for the proposed discount fares should come from the state.

Freddi Goldstein, a mayoral spokeswoman agrees that the pilot program is a noble one. “But the mayor has been very clear: the MTA is the responsibility of the state and they should consider funding the program,” she wrote in an email to TheInk.nyc.

Transit advocacy groups are urging de Blasio to keep his campaign promise to make public transit affordable and accessible.

“Mayor De Blasio has centered the activities of his administration around creating economic opportunity for low income New Yorkers,” Joe Loonam, an organizer at Riders Alliance, said in an email. “Make sure low income New Yorkers have access to all of the wonderful programs he has helped to create is his responsibility.”

Advocates for the subsidies hope the program will be adopted in the city’s budget for the next fiscal year, which will be released by July 1.

“We’re hopeful that the mayor is going to look beyond the issue of the MTA being a state authority and recognize that he’s talking about the New York City residents he represents,” said Jeffrey Maclin, a Community Service Society spokesman.