Making MTA buses free is just another surrender to crime

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris is leading the push in Albany for a permanent $45 million fare-free MTA bus program — the latest cave-in to lawlessness.

MTA stats show that fare evasion on buses and subways continues to rise, along with disorder in the transit system.

Farebeaters now cost the MTA $690 million a year; the crime’s grown so routine on city buses that many routes are practically free already.

Sorry: Paying $2.90 to cross the city is cheap; skipping the fare isn’t a “crime of poverty,” it’s a sign of arrogant contempt for everyone else.

And paying the fare is vital to maintaining basic order — a symbolic signing of the social contract.

Indeed, decades of data show that farebeating arrests enable cops to nab illegal gun-toters and other criminals — and reduce overall crime.

Maybe that’s why Gianaris (D-Queens) is pushing to expand the pilot $15 million taxpayer-funded fare-free program that’s operated on five MTA routes (one per borough) since last September: He’s grown so pro-crime that he wants to eliminate a proven way to get perps off the street.  

With harrowing acts of criminality becoming commonplace in the transit system, now is not the time to toss in the towel.

If lawmakers want to give the MTA more cash, it shouldn’t be to endorse fare evasion, but to fight it.