If Cab Fares Increase, Will Drivers Pay More, Too?

The Bloomberg administration is looking to raise fares for yellow cabs, but Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky last week declined to say whether the city would also consider a proposal to raise how much taxi fleets can charge drivers. "We're going to have a public hearing May 31," Yassky told City & State before a City Council budget hearing. "It's the same question we've been answering all day long." The city supports a fare increase, but it was reported last week that it is reluctant to also raise the so-called lease caps, the amount that taxi fleets charge cabbies to use their vehicles. Yassky last week declined to discuss the city's stance on the lease caps, saying only that the commission will process the two petitions that have been submitted for a fare increase and develop a proposal for the commission's nine-member body to consider and adopt. One petition, from the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance, would only raise fares, which would benefit drivers. The other petition, from the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, would raise fares and lease caps, which would lessen or eliminate the benefit from the fare increase to drivers. This article previously appeared on the City & State website. To read more from City & State, visit www.cityandstateny.com.