April 21, 2009

Politicians’ last-minute transit-bailout compromise may have hole in it big enough to drive a cab through: How to collect a $1 per taxi ride surcharge?

By Daniel Massey and Erik Engquist

Taxi industry leaders were baffled at how a key piece of the latest MTA-bailout compromise plan—a $1 per taxi ride surcharge that accounts for nearly $200 million of the $1.7 billion proposal—would be collected by government officials.

“We can’t figure that out,” said Ethan Gerber, of the Greater New York Taxi Association, which represents 1,500 medallion owners. “Most people still pay by cash.”

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said the logistics of the surcharge collection have yet to be determined. “I don’t think that has been worked out,” he said. “There’s of course a technical aspect, just as there was for the [idea of] collecting tolls [on East and Harlem river bridges].”

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