I’m a home health aide from the Bronx and a proud 1199SEIU member. My patients are all over this city. I get to them the only way I can, on slow buses like the Bx12 on Fordham Road. While I’m caring for New Yorkers, I worry about how to afford my next ride, my groceries, my rent.
In January, we welcomed Mayor Mamdani on a promise of economic justice. He entered City Hall as bus and subway fare hit $3 and the MTA is expanding fare enforcement with spikes and fines at turnstiles and EAGLE teams on buses. I myself have been ticketed on the bus.
The mayor campaigned on free buses but, right now, we need his administration to build on the foundation of an existing program, Fair Fares. Right now, I earn $1,000 too much to qualify for a half-fare discount.
To help struggling riders like me, who face impossible choices with every commute, the mayor must extend Fair Fares to New Yorkers earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level.
Even minimum wage workers earn too much to qualify. Despite our struggles to afford the basic necessities of life in New York, the benefit is only available to those who don’t regularly travel to work. Unsurprisingly, not that many eligible people take advantage of Fair Fares.
As the mayor understands, working New Yorkers are squeezed from every direction, with rising costs pushing people out of the city — and out of essential jobs that make life in the city possible, including home care, childcare and more. Expanding Fair Fares into a lifeline for low-income workers is essential for economic justice and New York’s future.
The city and the MTA already spend a lot of money collecting fares, whether we can afford them or not. Subway policing costs more than $700 million a year. New fare gates will cost more than $1 billion. EAGLE teams are costly too. With so much invested in enforcement, it’s time to invest in riders and lower costs for us.
Fast and free buses can be achieved in the next few years. But this year, in his first budget, due at the end of June, the mayor’s opportunity is to expand Fair Fares to people like me.
The Council wants to make the existing program free for very low-income people currently eligible for the benefit. The mayor can and should meet them and raise them — free fares and more discounts.
Mamdani promised a city we can afford to people who struggle. By doubling the eligibility threshold to qualify for a half-fare discount, the mayor could save working people like me, who rely on public transit to commute every day, close to $1,000 every year. Our savings remains in our communities, at local businesses, or saved for education, healthcare or housing.
Expanding Fair Fares can even help lead us to free buses by narrowing the gap in subsidies to support public transit. First, however, doubling Fair Fares eligibility will make life easier and sweeter for the New Yorkers who are the backbone of this city, working people who can’t take the risk of fare evasion or scale the growing obstacles built by the MTA.
Our budget expresses our values as a city. Economic justice demands a budget that treats working people right. The case for cutting the fare could hardly be more urgent.
Mr. Mayor, expand Fair Fares. Make it fair. And make it happen now, in this year’s budget.
Kamara is a member of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and Riders Alliance.