It's one of the first lessons a student of economics learns, or certainly should: If you want less of something, tax it. And if you would like to eliminate it entirely, tax it to death.
But the masterminds behind this all too widespread practice of penalizing ride-hailing operations like Uber and Lyft for their success must have missed school the day the rest of the class got to this part of the book. Because governments, state and local, across the country are now engaging in a race to kill this golden goose. Naturally enough, these governments and subdivisions thereof offer the most literally constructive of rationales for this most destructive course. But you, Gentle and Wise Reader, know that good intentions may prove only paving stones on the road to hellish results.
"If they want to share the pie," says Fayez Khozindar, the boss of the United Taxidrivers Community Council in Chicago, "then they have to pay the price."
How little Chicago seems to have changed since Hizzoner Richard J. Daley the First was calling the shots and his underlings were strong-arming the stubborn little guys who declined to pay "protection." It was one of the costs of doing business in the Windy City back then. and now is again. "It's fair," Boss Khozindar says, "because we know the city is short on funds and they want to fill the hole." Especially the one in their own pockets.
"Uber and Lyft have always been an easy target for cities looking for new streams of revenue," observes a working stiff who writes a blog under the byline of The Rideshare Guy, and who knows all too well of what he speaks. Rationales galore (as opposed to real reasons) abound for this kind of legalized extortion, but that scarcely makes it fair. And once you give this crew an opening, they'll stretch it till it becomes the size of the Grand Canyon. Let's see how this process, i.e. shakedown, is proceeding in Chicago:
Back in 2014, the city began adding an extra 20 cents to every ride-hailing tab because, it claimed, the taxi companies were being discriminated against. A couple of years later, the tip went to 50 cents plus an additional 2 cents that the ride-hailing company had to pay on its own. At last report, a 15-cent fee supposedly imposed just to help out the city's transit system increases the total to 65 cents that the passengers are expected to pay.
Oh, yes, there's also a special $5 fee expected whenever the ride-hailing cars stops by any of the city's larger airports, its convention center, and the Navy Pier, another popular attraction for tourists who find themselves prey for the city's expensive bureaucracy.
According to the city's own estimate, all these fees assessed the ride-hailing services had been the source of almost $39 million that went into the city's general fund in 2016--a hefty increase from the $100,000 they'd amounted to in 2014. Business had been good--but mainly for the city's ward heelers and other types who count on soaking the tourist trade. Not for businesspeople in general.
So welcome to Chicago, suckers. Just bring your wallets with you. 'Cause you're going to need them.
Editorial on 02/20/2018