The mayor will announce a proposal for a tax on New York City residents who earn more than $500,000 to raise money for subway and bus improvements.
Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to push for a tax on wealthy New Yorkers to pay for improvements needed to address the crisis engulfing New York City’s subway, city officials said on Sunday, the latest salvo in the battle between Mr. de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo over who bears responsibility for repairing the deteriorating transit system.
Mr. de Blasio will announce a so-called millionaires tax on Monday for wealthy New York City residents to pay for subway and bus upgrades. The proposal also includes funding to offer half-price MetroCards for low-income riders — part of a national movement that is gaining momentum in New York.
The mayor’s funding push comes as the subway is facing a multitude of problems, and leaders at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, have called on Mr. de Blasio to provide more money for the system.
“Rather than sending the bill to working families and subway and bus riders already feeling the pressure of rising fares and bad service, we are asking the wealthiest in our city to chip in a little extra to help move our transit system into the 21st century, ” Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The tax changes would require approval from state lawmakers in Albany — a difficult task, with Republicans in control of the Senate, though the urgency of the subway’s decline has raised the stakes and captured the attention of both parties. The mayor’s proposal builds on an effort by State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Democrat of Queens, to tax the wealthy to support the subway, and a campaign by transit advocates to establish reduced fares for poor residents following a successful program in Seattle.
Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo, who have long had a strained relationship, have engaged in an acrimonious public skirmish over financing for public transit. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, controls the transportation authority, but he has called on Mr. de Blasio to help fix the system. Both leaders have been pressured to address the crisis, with worsening subway service hurting Mr. Cuomo’s approval rating among voters and Mr. de Blasio being targeted by a harsh television ad campaign by the subway workers union.
The new tax would raise about $700 to $800 million per year, with more than $500 million going toward capital costs for subways and buses and about $250 million for the half-price MetroCard program, city officials said. It would increase the city’s highest income tax rate by about 0.5 percent, from about 3.9 percent to 4.4 percent, for married couples with incomes above $1 million and individuals who make more than $500,000.
City officials estimate that the tax would be paid by about 32,000 New York City tax filers, or less than 1 percent of those who file their taxes in the city. New Yorkers already contribute to the authority through various taxes and fees, and the city committed $2.5 billion for the agency’s current capital improvement plan.
Mr. de Blasio’s plan comes with several demands, including that Mr. Cuomo keep his promise for the state to pay $8 billion toward the authority’s current capital plan and an additional $1 billion Mr. Cuomo committed for the subway in June. The new funding would also be separate from the authority’s short-term subway rescue plan, which city officials said should be paid for by returning money to the authority that the state had previously diverted.
Last month, the authority’s new chairman, Joseph J. Lhota, proposed a roughly $800 million plan for immediate repairs to turn around worsening subway service. Delays have skyrocketed on the century-old system, and several recent accidents have raised concerns about its safety.
The mayor’s embrace of half-price MetroCards for poor New Yorkers comes after months of lobbying from transit advocates and could be a popular proposal as Mr. de Blasio runs for re-election in November. About 800,000 people in New York City who are at or below the federal poverty level could qualify for half-price MetroCards, city officials said.
