Zohran Mamdani spent his entire mayoral campaign promising “fast and free buses.” He won. New Yorkers apparently believed him. Paid bus ridership fell nearly 8% in June compared to the same month last year. During Mamdani’s first six months, bus fare revenue dropped $31 million compared to the first half of 2025. Nearly half of bus riders are now skipping the $3 fare entirely.
Only, the policy’s not official yet. Bus fares are still in place. Three bucks a ride. Now Mamdani’s got another problem: A looming massive bus maintenance budget and driver salary shortfall.
This is what happens when you promise something you can’t deliver: people take the promise seriously even when the policy doesn’t exist. MTA Chairman Janno Lieber blamed the rhetoric directly, telling reporters: “With malice towards none, I say all of the talk of free buses, it has an impact.”
The irony is complete. Mamdani campaigned on free buses. He doesn’t control the MTA — that’s Kathy Hochul and the state. He couldn’t deliver free buses even if he wanted to. But New York City riders heard the promise, absorbed the promise, and are now acting as if the promise is policy. The MTA is eating $31 million in losses because the mayor of New York City ran a campaign that told people not to pay for something he had no power to make free.
This is Socialism 101. The promise is free. The consequences cost someone else money. In this case, the MTA — which is already perpetually underfunded, which depends on fare revenue to maintain service, and which is controlled by a governor who is now quietly furious at Mamdani for creating a fare-evasion crisis through sheer rhetorical recklessness.
The city and state have since pivoted to a plan focused on speeding up bus routes rather than eliminating fares. But union leaders and transit experts say the “free bus” rhetoric has already done its damage.
Manhattan rents are at all-time highs. Universal childcare costs twice what Mamdani’s campaign advertised. Government grocery stores are open to anyone on earth with no ID or residency verification. The pied-à-terre tax has an exemption process so broken that an 81-year-old widow nearly paid $42,000 to prove she lives in her own home. The rent freeze drove market rents to record levels. And now $31 million in bus fare revenue has evaporated because the mayor told people the buses were free when they’re still $3.
Venezuela ran out of other people’s money too. It just took longer. New York City is not Venezuela — yet. The difference is that New York still has a functioning private economy that the Mamdanis of the world haven’t fully dismantled. Yet. Bus rides are still $3. The MTA is $31 million poorer. And Mamdani is still mayor. Tick tock.
