Mayor Eric Adams has lent his support to a pilot program that would make some city buses free, giving an eleventh-hour push to a proposal championed by state legislators amid delayed budget negotiations.
The pilot program, included by the Assembly and Senate in their, would make two bus lines in each borough free, for a total of 10 routes citywide. Those routes have not been decided, but the Assembly’s proposal stipulates that in each borough, one would have to serve a low-income community and the other a commercial corridor.“I strongly support the thought of having ten buses being free. The lines in the city I think will make a major impact,” Hizzoner said.
“No matter our place on the political spectrum, we know free buses would be a huge win for working-class NYers who rely on public transit,” Mamdani said. “The time is now.” The Legislature’s adoption of the free bus proposal put lawmakers at odds with Hochul, whose executive budget did not include the pilot program. The proposal is part of the governor’s and legislature’s competing plans to rescue the fiscally-beleaguered MTA, which faces a $600-million-and-growing deficit without new streams of funding from Albany.
MTA leadership has expressed confidence in Hochul’s rescue plan — which mostly depends on payroll taxes, along with future casino revenues and cost shifts to the city — especially compared to that of the Legislature, which relies on taxes on corporate profits, Uber and Lyft surcharges, and the creation of a residential parking permit system.
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