Bronx, NY--- This afternoon, Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez was joined by Council Member Ruben Diaz Sr.,
livery drivers, taxi medallion owners and taxi drivers in the Bronx, to call for the New York City Council to take immediate action to provide financial relief and assistance to taxicab and livery drivers. Council Member Rodriguez will introduce legislation in the coming weeks to establish a bailout program for certain taxi medallion owners based on the financial crisis of each individual owner. His proposal also intends to have a moratorium for taxi and livery drivers that face huge penalties issued by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) that have accumulated over time, and exclude taxi and livery drivers from the State surcharge crippling the taxi industry.
The taxicab industry in New York City has seen a sharp decline in ridership in recent years. As of November 30, 2018, data from the TLC showed that taxi ridership was a little over 290,000 per day while Uber ridership was more than 485,000 trips per day. As the value of taxi medallions continues to decline and drivers receive excessive fines by the TLC, the City of New York is obligated to do more to assist this struggling workforce of livery and taxi drivers. Council Member Rodriguez urges his Council colleagues and Mayor de Blasio to join him in his initiative to provide financial assistance to the taxicab & livery drivers in the most desperate need of solutions to this expanding crisis.
"If we can bring $3 billion dollars to the table for Amazon, we can provide some financial debt relief for our taxi and livery driver community. As Chair of the New York City Council Committee on Transportation, I will work with my colleagues to establish a bailout program for individual medallion owners, and call for a moratorium on credit shattering fines issued to taxi and livery drivers by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), as well as ask the State of New York to halt the congestion surcharge until a comprehensive congestion pricing plan is passed, said Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez.
"Medallion owners have not had their investments protected because NYC failed to regulate the predatory newcomers like Uber. Council Member Rodriguez is standing up for justice and we stand behind him one hundred percent," said Rich Lipinsky, spokesperson for Taxi Medallion Owners.
"Medallion taxi drivers are part of the lifeblood of this city. They move millions of people 24/7 and are part of the cultural fabric and economic infrastructure of our communities. We can't sit on our hands when taxi medallion owners are experiencing so much financial hardship that it has driven some to take their own lives. I'm calling for immediate action to provide financial relief and assistance to taxi cab and livery drivers, including excluding them from the State surcharge which will harm the taxi industry," said Council Member Fernando Cabrera.
