THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK Bill de Blasio PUBLIC ADVOCATE

August 3, 2011 The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo Governor of New York State NYS State Capitol Building Albany, NY 12224 Dear Governor Cuomo, I am writing today to urge you to veto the Taxi Bill passed by the New York State Legislature last month. This bill would issue up to 30,000 permits for around $1,500 each, essentially creating a new class of livery cabs capable of legally picking up street hails outside of Manhattan and in Upper Manhattan neighborhoods. While I am generally supportive and encouraged by the efforts of Mayor Bloomberg and TLC Commissioner Yassky to increase taxi service in underserved areas of our City, I believe this bill will threaten the yellow and livery cab industries in significant ways. For example, this bill represents a significant threat to the yellow cab industry by undermining the equity of current taxi medallion owners. As of May 2011, the average price of a new yellow cab medallion was $665,000 for an individual taxi owner and $950,000 for fleet owners. Clearly, the purchase of these expensive taxi medallions represents a significant investment on the part of thousands of yellow cab drivers and fleet owners. The current taxi plan will threaten this investment by increasing competition for street hails, a service that has for years been provided by yellow cab drivers alone as a benefit of medallion ownership. This plan likewise threatens the livelihood of livery cab base owners and drivers. For decades, livery cab companies have offered reliable and legitimate pre-arranged cab service throughout the five boroughs of New York City. However, the current taxi plan will place substantial barriers in front of those providing legal, pre-arranged car services. If the Mayors plan becomes law, the existence of newly-permitted livery cabs capable of picking up street fares will no doubt significantly decrease the demand for prearranged car service. This plan will also likely increase the incentive for non-permitted livery drivers to pick up street hails illegally. I supported the administrations previous 5-borough taxi plan because it would have expanded access to taxi services while protecting the Citys taxi and livery cab industries. That plan would have created and auctioned off 6,000 new borough medallions, capable of picking up street hails in the four nonManhattan boroughs, and in Upper Manhattan neighborhoods. Those borough medallions would have been linked to the sale of 1,500 new citywide yellow-cab medallions. The separation of street hail service and pre-arranged livery service was preserved in that plan, also preserving the myriad consumer and business benefits that attend only to an environment in which each service has its exclusive domain. The linkage of street hail service to a medallion of considerable value is crucial such linkage ensures compliance with the separation of services while allowing medallions to retain value as collateral for individuals and fleet owners whose enterprise value resides in the medallion. The current proposal
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THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK Bill de Blasio PUBLIC ADVOCATE
passed by the legislature lacks these key features, and will harm the taxi industry, the livery industry, and consumers. The taxi bill will soon come to your desk for your decision. For the reasons outlined in this letter, I urge you to veto this bill in favor of a plan that will expand access to cab services while protecting the current cab and limousine industries that New Yorkers have relied on for decades. Sincerely,

Bill de Blasio Public Advocate for the City of New York Cc: Larry Schwartz, Secretary to the Governor

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