All’s fare in taxi-medallion fight

On Tuesday, about 40 cab drivers spoke against “limited pilot proposals” that would allow taxi medallions to be purchased or auctioned. Medallions are little metal plates emblazoned with numbers that authorize the driver to operate as a taxi.

According to a 2007 report by the (now extinct) Taxicab Commission, there are 1,431 medallions in circulation and 7,000 drivers licensed to operate a taxi. How does this work? Subject to certain rules, medallion holders can lease the use of those little plates to drivers and cab companies. People who have medallions cannot sell them, but leasing out a medallion can fetch anywhere from $1,800 to $4,000 per month.

How does a driver (since 1978 only drivers can own medallions) obtain one of these little money machines? Step One: Pay about $350 to put your name on waiting list. Step Two: Stay out of trouble and pray you outlive enough medallion-holders to get one. Step Three: Pay about $600 for the initial privilege and another $500 per year after that.

Voters have rejected no fewer than eight attempts to change the medallion system since it was revamped in 1978. But hope springs eternal, so we are revisiting this issue.

You see, the Taxicab Commission was recently folded into the Municipal Transportation Agency, and because Muni is $129 million past broke, the medallions hanging from the New Guy’s neck are looking mighty shiny. Why let other people profit from what we practically give away? What might they fetch? Depending on how the plan is structured, the transit agency estimates it could get anywhere from $5 million to $56 million.

Now, there are several ways to squeeze money from a medallion: auctioning off a new kind of medallion that owners can sell or lease; allowing some current medallion-holders to pay the transit agency for permission to sell those medallions; or just declaring all medallions transferable with Muni collecting a percentage of any initial purchase price.

Of course, for folks who have been on the waiting list — some for more than 10 years — suddenly changing the rules seems unfair. Speakers at Tuesday’s meeting also pointed out that taxi folk did not cause the transit agency’s problems, so it should not be using medallion money as a temporary fix for its consistently ridiculous mess of a budget. For several drivers, the notion of selling medallions to pay the wages and benefits of Muni’s unionized work force is particularly galling since most of The City’s cab drivers are nonunion and do not receive employer-provided benefits.

There will be another public Muni budget hearing at 2 p.m. April 21 in Room 400 at City Hall. Good luck hailing a cab that afternoon.

City should prepare for repayment letdown

Not that it took powerful political prescience, but I’ve written here a few times that there will not be a local special election to consider tax increases.

On Tuesday, the Service Employees International Union, which represents most city employees, released an outline of a tentative agreement between the union and the Mayor’s Office. Part of that deal includes an agreement by the administration “to work with [union] members and other community allies to put a measure on the November 200[9] ballot to increase revenue and save jobs and services.”

So it looks like the special election is unofficially officially not going to happen.

Before you return your “special election” outfit, remember there will still be a statewide special election May 19, where we can vote on a handful of measures apparently designed to make up for their lack of clarity by being excessively important.

The Department of Elections estimates that the cost of putting on the May 19 election will be $3.1 million. While the department expects the state will reimburse that cost, I’m not as optimistic that the same government that has so bungled finances that this election is necessary can be counted on to pay us back. How can we trust them again? You have to earn it, Mister. Um, I mean, Governor.

At any rate, if the state cannot pony up, I hereby volunteer to raise $164 for the purchase of the most important item in the department’s budget: “I Voted” stickers.

Communication issues remain thorn in side of business center

At Monday’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee meeting, supervisors David Chiu, Sophie Maxwell and Eric Mar heard from Regina Dick-Endrizzi, acting director of The City’s Small Business Assistance Center.

You may recall that the center was created by the passage of Proposition I in 2007. Part of its mandate is to “issue a report that ... makes recommendations regarding the streamlining and consolidation of ... departmental functions” that relate to small businesses.

Now comes Tuesday’s hearing about the efficiency efforts, and the report is about a year late. Dick-Endrizzi reported her findings thus far: Employees in departments that deal with small businesses do not communicate properly with each other. Board President David Chiu looked a little — dare I write it? — perturbed. I mean, this is a man who opened Tuesday’s board meeting by saying “Go Giants” with all the emotion of a bank teller. But at the small-business hearing, I swear he made an expression of mild unhappiness.

I cannot blame him. The reason the center was created is because we already know departments do not talk to each other. It seems like the center’s requests to cooperate are being ignored because departments are facing budget cuts at the same time that we need attention to the issue of streamlining functions. To recap: People in our Tower of Babel are performing duplicative functions with fewer resources, so we have no time to figure out how to do things efficiently.