{"id":306669,"date":"2025-10-16T00:18:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/306669\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T00:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:18:20","slug":"new-mayor-has-chance-to-improve-fair-fares-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/306669\/","title":{"rendered":"New mayor has chance to improve Fair Fares program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The $2.90 most New Yorkers pay for subway and bus fare will go up to $3.00 next year, but it\u2019s half-price for thousands of New Yorkers, like Jerimiah Gonzalez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can go for more rides than if I pay full fare,\u201d said Gonzalez, who signed up for the city\u2019s Fair Fares discount program last year. \u201cIf I\u2019m going for a job interview, if I\u2019m going to somewhere that I need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the Community Service Society of NY, only 37% of the estimated 1.4 million eligible New Yorkers are enrolled in the city&#8217;s low-income reduced transit fare program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The current income requirements exclude those who work full time for minimum wage<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Advocates, city council members and the MTA wanted the eligiblity threshold increased from 145% to 200% of the federal poverty level in this year&#8217;s city budget, but the mayor would only agree to a 5% increase, though he has raised the threshold three times since taking office<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Advocates say raising the income threshold to 200% would make more than 400,000 more New Yorkers eligible for the Fair Fares program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b data-rte-class=\"rte-temp\"><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Fair Fares program is open to New Yorkers ages 18-64 who make 145% of the federal poverty level (FPL), and that threshold is about to go up to 150%.<\/p>\n<p>At the current level, an individual must make $22,692; a family of four: $46,617.<\/p>\n<p>Debipriya Chatterjee, a senior economist at the Community Service Society of New York (CSS) says the level excludes those working 40 hours at minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are still struggling with transit affordability but are making a little bit too much to qualify for the program,\u201d Chatterjee said.<\/p>\n<p>The 5% expansion in the city\u2019s latest budget is a far cry from what advocates wanted: a threshold set at 200%. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said she\u2019s baffled by Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 reluctance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should have been an easy thing,\u201d Adrienne Adams said. \u201cConsidering we\u2019re all talking about affordability for New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the mayor did raise the threshold three times, increasing the income limit to 200% of the FPL would make over 400,000 additional New Yorkers eligible.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Fritsch, with the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC), says the money is there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve been allocating about $1 million annually per percent that they\u2019ve increased the eligibility level,\u201d Fritsch said. \u201cAnd never have they spent all of the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because of the approximately 1.4 million eligible New Yorkers, only 37% of them are enrolled, according to CSS. Speaker Adams says the city has not promoted the program enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m talking about promotion through the DOE,\u201d she said. \u201cPromotion through CUNY, promotion through our hospital system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city notifies people on public assistance that they\u2019re eligible, but according to a recent CSS survey, fewer than half of respondents did not apply or know how to. The MTA says it has increased outreach, including ads and weekly sign-up events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecently we\u2019ve added Fair Fares kiosks at our customer service centers,\u201d said Shanifah Rieara, the MTA\u2019s chief customer officer. \u201cWhere our customers can now self-serve and sign up, 24 hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advocates would like to see automatic enrollment for those who qualify.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a huge opportunity for whoever is the next mayor to really look at this program holistically about how people are getting around the city and look at expansion options,\u201d Fritsch said.<\/p>\n<p>So others like Jerimiah Gonzalez don\u2019t have to make difficult decisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOtherwise,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI\u2019ll be forced into the position where I have to skip a fare.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The $2.90 most New Yorkers pay for subway and bus fare will go up to $3.00 next year,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,7448,23953,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,37965,52,26304,11900,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-306669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-app-traffic-transit","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-samantha-liebman","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-traffic-and-transit","21":"tag-transit","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115380978083164619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}