A tale of two taxi hearings At a court hearing and taxi commission meeting, arguments over a fare increase and new livery-car program came down to one thing: money.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission Thursday appeared to support cab drivers' request for a 20% fare increase. Meanwhile, lawyers for Mayor Michael Bloomberg were in state Supreme Court defending the city's plan to allow livery drivers to pick up street hails.
The Bloomberg administration says the events were not related. But some cabbies are connecting the dots.
The drivers say the fare increase will yield political and possibly legal gains for the mayor—which is why the issue of a pay raise is suddenly on the table for the first time in more than six years.
A fare hike would increase revenue, make medallions more valuable and undercut the yellow taxi industry's argument that the outer-borough system would sink the value of their medallions.
The new fares would make it easier to sell the first tranche of what could eventually be 18,000 livery street-hail permits, said Vincent Sapone, managing director of the League of Mutual Taxi Owners, a group representing drivers who own medallions.
"With a fare increase, they'd also be able to sell the 2,000 new taxi medallions quicker and get a better price on them," Mr. Sapone said.
The price of a medallion owned by a corporation sells for around $1 million at auction. An individual medallion owner by a driver goes for more than $600,000. Driver Jawaid Toppa paid $345,000 for his medallion but refinanced to invest in a house. He now owes $450,000. A fare increase would put money in his pocket. "I got bills to pay," he said at the Taxi and Limousine Commission hearing downtown.
The law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year allows the city to issue permits to livery drivers, who would operate bright-green taxis and be allowed to pick up street hails in the outer boroughs and northern Manhattan.
But the yellow taxi industry asked a state judge Thursday to halt the issuance of outer-borough hail permits. They argued that the plan violates the law because it takes away the exclusive right granted by the yellow medallion to pick up street hails and would inflict on them economic harm.
The plaintiffs also argued that the city erred by going through the state Legislature rather than the City Council and by not evaluating the environmental impact of putting thousands of additional cars on the streets. The city disputes those claims.
With around 40,000 licensed cabbies vying to drive just 13,240 cabs, more yellow taxis would almost certainly mean more money in the hands of fleet operators who lease the vehicles to drivers.
The yellow taxi industry has asked the commission to raise the maximum amount they can charge cabbies who lease their vehicles, saying their costs to maintain the cars and operate their garages have gone up too.
But the New York Taxi Workers Alliance opposes raising the so-called lease cap. The group said drivers' take-home pay has fallen 25% since the last fare hike in 2006. Gas prices are up 45%. The alliance's executive director Bhairavi Desai said fleet operators have added questionable new charges—like late fees and an additional driver surcharge—to keep their margins up. She also said garages no longer offer cabbies the ability to rent a cab for the cheaper weekly rate. Instead they are forced to pay a more expensive daily price.
Commissioner David Yassky indicated his displeasure with fleet operators, saying that the Taxi and Limousine Commission had recently begun to issue summonses for lease-cap violations.
Ethan Gerber, a fleet operator and the executive director of the Greater New York Taxi Association, said, "We have a lot of accusations without any proof whatsoever."
In court Thursday, a lawyer for the taxi industry, Randy Mastro, argued passionately while attorney for the city appeared not to impress the judge—a former cabbie himself.
At the hearing, meanwhile, passions ran deep. Fleet operators in suits and gold chains sat alongside turban-wearing cabbies carrying yellow signs asking for a "fair increase."
Ms. Desai, expressing her frustration, boiled the political and legal conflict down to its essence.
"Why is the medallion the only thing worth anything in this industry?" Ms. Desai said. "What about the men and women who with their blood, sweat and tears bring that medallion its equity?"
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