New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority board switched tracks at the 11th hour and shielded base-fare riders from the latest round of biennial fare and toll increases.
The base fare for coin-on-bus and pay-per-fare MetroCard will remain at $2.75 while 30- and seven-day passes will increase to $121 and $32, respectively, from $116.50 and $31. The bonus on the pay-per-ride MetroCard will drop from 11% to 5% with the purchase threshold remaining at $5.50.
The new fares will take effect March 19. The MTA has implemented biennial hikes since 2009.
Bond analysts have called the predictability of the increases a plus.
Wednesday's vote following a lengthy meeting at lower Manhattan headquarters eclipsed an alternative proposal to raise the single fare to $3 – possibly a public-relations move at the urging of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has flexed his muscles lately at the state-run agency. Some transit officials saw the $3 fare as a mental hurdle.
MTA chief financial officer Robert Foran told board members at previous meetings that failure to enact the increases and to meet savings targets of at least $1.6 billion annually would make the authority's financial situation "untenable." Foran has said the authority projects a $319 million deficit in 2020.
Wednesday's meeting featured 25 public speakers, several talking well beyond the standard two-minute limit and alternately opposing the fare hikes, advocating subsidized fares for poor people and praising outgoing Chairman Thomas Prendergast.
It was the final board meeting for Prendergast, who is retiring from the agency at the end of the month. Board members gave him a standing ovation.
"We have to stay within our affordability envelope and the customers' affordability envelope," Prendergast told reporters after the meeting.
Board member Veronica Vanterpool said the authority, one of the largest municipal issuers with $35.7 billion of debt as of Dec. 31, relies too heavily on borrowing. She cited the authority taking on $1.5 billion of additional debt last year, mostly from the Hudson Yards Rail Trust transaction, even as it whittled $945 million from its four-credit core portfolio.
"We need a plan to reduce our reliance on debt," said Vanterpool, the executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "We cannot rely on that so heavily."
Several public speakers favored reduced fares for lower-income riders. Transportation advocates and nonprofit organizations support half-fare MetroCards, which would cost an estimated $200 million annually. Similar discounts exist for elderly and students.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio included no such subsidy in his $84.7 billion fiscal 2018 preliminary budget.
De Blasio bristled when one reporter asked him about it at Tuesday's City Hall budget briefing.
"Look, I think it's a noble goal. But first of all, we cannot afford to," said de Blasio. "Second of all, it should be the responsibility of the State of New York. The State of New York controls the MTA.
"We can't afford it, which sort of makes the whole question moot, but I think the cart and the horse are wrong here. They should fund it."
Prendergast, by contrast, said Wednesday that so-called social fares are "rightly the role of municipalities."
City Council transportation committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez said he would continue to push for the subsidy during the city budget process.
"With about 40% of New Yorkers living at or below the poverty line – and those numbers don't change every year -- there should be some subsidy as there are in many other cities," Rodriguez said Wednesday after speaking to the MTA board. "I would hope that we would continue having conversations with the mayor."
The board also voted to expand a pilot program that explores free transfer at the Atlantic Yards station for Long Island Rail Road riders.
