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The city’s own number-crunchers just put a $1.1 billion price tag on free NYC buses, $400 million above what anyone was saying out loud

NYC's Independent Budget Office estimates making all city buses free could cost $1.1 billion annually, well above prior projections of under $800 million.

The city’s own number-crunchers just put a $1.1 billion price tag on free NYC buses, $400 million above what anyone was saying out loud
A New York City bus lane.
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Free buses sound like the easiest yes in New York politics. Get on, sit down, go. No fumbling for your phone at the OMNY reader, no $3 base fare, no driver telling you the back door is broken so swipe up front. Then the city’s Independent Budget Office did the math, and the math is not friendly. On June 3, 2026, the IBO estimated that making every city bus fare-free could cost as much as $1.1 billion a year, according to amNewYork’s reporting on the analysis. That is roughly $400 million higher than the $700 million Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign had floated.

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