City to Fund Fair Fares, School Accessibility as Budget Increases 5%

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council struck a deal Monday evening, raising the city's annual operating budget by nearly 5 percent. 

The Council's biggest win was $106 million to begin the Fair Fares program, which aims to fund half-priced MetroCards to the poorest 800,000 New Yorkers who live at or below the federal poverty line ($25,000 a year for a family of four). The program will begin rolling out next January. 

De Blasio had long maintained the state should defray the costs of subway cards said the city didn't have the funds to dedicate.

"How is it fair that in the richest city, with a city with a budget of $89 billion, that a working mom has to beg for a MetroCard swipe to take her daughter to school," City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said at Monday's press conference announcing deal. "It isn't right and it is ending."

Other budget highlights include $150 million to make city schools more accessible for students with disabilities and $500 million to fund affordable housing for seniors on six parcels of city-owned land. 

Budget watchdogs at the Citizens Budget Commission feared that increased spending levels, about $4 billion above last year, are increasing at a greater rate than the funds being squirreled away in reserves.

"The budget is really ballooning to a tremendously large amount and all of that spending is backed by city debt," said CBC Vice President Maria Doulis. "In the long term indebting future New Yorkers for political priorities today."

The city's budget year begins July 1.