New York City taxpayers could pay just over $1.1 billion annually for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “free” buses, per a new New York City Independent Budget Office estimate. It’s the latest major socialist campaign promise revealed to be more expensive than originally advertised. Go figure.
The new figure is a roughly $450 million annual markup from the IBO’s original 2023 free bus estimate that Mamdani cited on the campaign trail. The office also believes that the $1.1 billion cost could increase year over year, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority purchases more buses, pays additional overtime, hires new bus operators, and recoups lost subway revenue from higher bus demand.
The IBO’s new fare-free bus estimate only adds to the doubts already surrounding Mamdani’s proposal. A Citizens Budget Commission review of the MTA’s November 2025 Budget Plan found a structural gap that will reach $1.1 billion in 2029.
Mamdani’s campaign also claimed that free buses would save New Yorkers 36 million hours annually, but the IBO corrected the record.
“If you have more people riding the bus, it’s gonna take more time to get on the bus, and therefore it’s gonna take significantly longer to get to your destination,” Jan Mendez, the organization’s lead budget and policy analyst, said during a Tuesday webinar discussing its new report.
Free buses are unlikely this year, though. Mamdani spent much of his political capital this year lobbying for a pied-a-terre tax and state bailout to balance the budget. The socialist told Politico that he’s still committed to making buses “fast and free.” But no legislators in Albany included the proposal in the state’s budget.
Mamdani’s city-owned grocery stores may eclipse the original sticker price, too.
His grocery store experiment is supposed to cost New Yorkers $70 million. The city’s Economic Development Corporation plans to open a location in each borough. The only problem? Mamdani’s first two locations already cost the Big Apple $40 million. The EDC has not explained how it would cover operating costs once it develops the city-owned grocery stores.
More often, Mamdani’s other grandiose campaign promises simply falter against the city’s fiscal reality. He scaled back his original $100 billion affordable housing aspirations to $22 billion last month.
The socialist mayor planned a $1.1 billion “Department” of Community Safety, parallel to other major city departments, such as the New York Police Department. It was supposed to be Mamdani’s concession to police abolitionists.
But the city’s budget shortfalls struck down Mamdani’s brainchild. He instead opted for an inconsequential “Office” of Community Safety — an executive office that combines preexisting Gracie Mansion agencies.
In his address after serving 100 days, Mamdani played on Margaret Thatcher’s quote — that socialists eventually run out of other people’s money.
MAMDANI’S HOUSING PLAN WILL NOT SOLVE NYC’S HOUSING CRISIS
“If anything, my friends, it seems that you eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess,” the mayor said, as if free markets caused Gotham’s spiraling budget. Mamdani may have forgotten about his progressive predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who grew the budget by $20 billion during his tenure. He also forgot the $8 billion New York City hemorrhaged because city progressives stood firm on its sanctuary and right-to-shelter laws during the Biden migrant crisis. The city projects to spend almost $12 billion on asylum-seekers by fiscal 2029.
The former British prime minister’s quote has become the defining critique of Mamdani’s tenure. Between IBO’s new free busing estimates and his budget battles, New York socialists are learning there’s truly no such thing as a “free” lunch.