Crain's: Taxi plan panned as ‘Trojan Horse'

Taxi plan panned as ‘Trojan Horse'

Twelve state and city elected officials, led by Assemblyman Micah Kellner, plan to send a letter today urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to delay signing the city's outer-borough taxi bill.

Under Kellner's proposed alternative, which he says could be passed by the Legislature as an amendment to the current bill, all 1,500 new medallions would be for wheelchair-accessible cabs. Instead of 30,000 outer-borough taxi permits, the city would sell 6,000 livery medallions, of which about 1,200 would be for accessible cars.

Kellner had originally negotiated a deal with the Bloomberg administration for 569 of the 1,500 medallions to be for wheelchair-accessible cabs. His about-face has puzzled some observers. “He could have negotiated this at the 11th hour, but … it's not the 11th hour, it's past midnight,” one insider said.

The assemblyman's shift reflects his overarching goal of making the taxi fleet more accessible. Only 231 of more than 13,000 cabs accommodate wheelchairs. But, unlike the taxi industry, Kellner would rather have the governor sign the bill than veto it, he says.

An insider said the bill that passed was the best Kellner could get at the time. The taxi industry assumed that it would defeat the legislation and rejected a compromise floated by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. After it lost, however, the industry told Kellner it would support a plan centered on civil rights for the disabled, not yellow cab protectionism.

Kellner wants to convince Cuomo that putting more wheelchair-accessible cabs on the streets will save the Metropolitan Transportation Authority money because fewer riders would use its costly Access-a-Ride program. But that's unlikely, if only because most of the program's participants do not use wheelchairs.

The livery industry believes Kellner is sincere, but it does not trust the taxi industry and says taxi owners are unlikely to accept a deal in which livery medallions would be sold for $25,000. Yellow cab medallions fetch upward of $1 million.

“[Accessibility] is a laudable goal, but make no mistake, the proposal is a Trojan Horse meant to undermine a carefully constructed bill that was thoughtfully deliberated,” said Eddie Castell, a livery industry lobbyist.