NEW YORK—The outer-borough taxi plan that would have potentially sold 18,000 licenses, or medallions, to taxi drivers for operation in all five boroughs has been blocked, at least temporarily, by a state Supreme Court judge.
In February, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that allows the sale of outer-borough licenses. Yet multiple lawsuits brought against the city government outline how the matter should have been decided in the city, not the state.
The judge agrees.
“This court has trouble seeing how the provision of taxi service in New York City is a matter that can be wrenched from the hands of city government, where it has resided for some 75 years, and handed over to the state,” wrote state Supreme Court Justice Arthur F. Engoron in his decision. “Both governments are democracies, but only one is solely answerable on Election Day to the constituents of the five boroughs, those directly affected by the taxi service at issue here.”
Issuing outer-borough taxi licenses is one part of a two-part plan that would bring the city an estimated $1 billion in revenue. The decision could affect upcoming decisions about the fiscal year 2013 budget, which will be finalized this month.
The court decision also affects the other part of the plan—which would have brought in a large part of the revenue—issuing 2,000 additional yellow taxi medallions over the next three years.
These licenses would have been auctioned off for approximately $700,000 each.
The outer-borough taxi licenses, temporarily blocked after the judge’s decision, would have also been issued over the next three years, with 6,000, or one-third, being sold this year for $1,500 each.
Prices for the other two batches of 6,000, according to a public presentation in March by TLC Commissioner David Yassky, would have increased to $3,000 each in 2013, and $4,500 each in 2015.
All together, the total sale of outer-borough licenses would have only brought $54 million to the city, while the sale of the 2,000 yellow taxi medallions alone could, if let through, bring in $840 million if the first 1,200 were sold this year and next year for approximately $700,000 each, as planned.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office on Twitter said: “Disappointing taxi decision that will delay safe and legal service for New Yorkers outside Manhattan. Exploring our appellate options expeditiously.”
Meanwhile, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio also on Twitter stated that “Michael Bloomberg can get this right but needs to work within the law,” referring to going to the state Legislature instead of the City Council.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, one of the plaintiffs said, “By preventing the Taxi and Limousine Commission from issuing any outer-borough street hail permits the court has prevented a trampling of the New York state Constitution as well as an economic disaster from taxi owners and drivers who invested their life savings into what they regard as the American dream—the taxi medallion,” according to Transportation Nation.
TLC Commissioner Yassky told the media, “We share the disappointment of the 80 percent of New Yorkers who live and work outside Manhattan and are waiting for safe, legal, and reliable taxi service as well as the thousands of livery drivers who stand ready to provide that service.”
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