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Transportation Businesses Government The Almighty Buck

Bay Area Cities Consider Rideshare Tax On Uber, Lyft (arstechnica.com) 92

Posted by BeauHD from the nickel-and-dime dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A local city council member is beginning to float the idea of taxing ridehailing companies like Uber and Lyft as a possible way to raise millions of dollars and help pay for local public transportation and infrastructure improvements. If the effort is successful, Oakland could become the first city in California -- Uber and Lyft's home state -- to impose such a tax. However, it's not clear whether Oakland or any other city in the Golden State has the authority to do so under current state rules. Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan told the East Bay Express that she wants the city council to put forward a ballot measure that would tax such rides. A similar proposal in nearby San Francisco, projecting a fee of $0.20 to $1 per ride, would allow the city to collect an estimated $12.5 to $62.5 million annually. However, an October 2017 city analysis noted that San Francisco "cannot initiate locally without state authorizing legislation" and that the fee "may disproportionately impact lower-income households."
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Bay Area Cities Consider Rideshare Tax On Uber, Lyft More

Bay Area Cities Consider Rideshare Tax On Uber, Lyft

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  • Tax them as taxis (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @05:55PM (#56229879)
    Why not just regulate and tax them as taxi services... since they *are* taxi services? I understand times change, but Uber and Lyft are really no different than taxis, other than the drivers get paid shit.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by BlueStrat ( 756137 )

      Why not just regulate and tax them as taxi services... since they *are* taxi services?

      Maybe because those very same government taxes, laws, ordinances, and regulations, along with the way they are implemented and enforced, are the exact reason WHY taxis suck such a huge bag of dicks that things like Uber and Lyft have risen despite laws and regulations against them in order to fulfill the population's need for quality and affordable individual on-call transportation that taxi services and mass transit in the US utterly fail at providing?

      Strat

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        The US has failed to provide mass transit because it's not funded. People in the US don't want to pay for mass transit, and by and large, they don't. I think that people should fund mass transit. But that's neither here nor there.

        You're right. The laws haven't kept up with technology. So companies should be allowed to flagrantly violate the laws?
        • Also I might add the companies that expect their employees to get to work every day should be chipping in as well, more than they do.

        • The US has failed to provide mass transit because it's not funded. People in the US don't want to pay for mass transit, and by and large, they don't. I think that people should fund mass transit. But that's neither here nor there.

          People are not willing to fund mass transit in many if not most areas of the US because of the barriers raised firstly in the form of the enormous size of the US (you can travel over 3,000 miles and never leave the country!!), secondly the way cities, towns, and villages spread because they are laid out with the idea that people will have personal transportation, and thirdly many people don't wish to live crowded together in close proximity to others. The practicality and costs of implementation and ongoing

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by DogDude ( 805747 )
            The practicality and costs of implementation and ongoing costs versus ridership/fares of mass transit systems under such conditions becomes prohibitive, impractical, and uneconomic.

            And again, this statement is not a fact, but an opinion held by a lot of Americans. That's why we don't have mass transit.

            The US could easily afford to do it. Instead, people would rather spend (waste) our money on endless wars and an ever growing military.

        • You're right. The laws haven't kept up with technology. So companies should be allowed to flagrantly violate the laws?

          Rather than impose laws and fees on the new model that is working, why not LIFT the laws and fees on regular taxis, and allow them to compete and see who wins?

          Instead of dragging down a model that seems to be working and is superior....why not allow the others to build themselves UP?

          That's a win for everyone.

          • Rather than impose laws and fees on the new model that is working, why not LIFT the laws and fees on regular taxis, and allow them to compete and see who wins?

            Instead of dragging down a model that seems to be working and is superior....why not allow the others to build themselves UP?

            That's a win for everyone.

            Except for those in power who control the laws, regulations, ordinances, etc, and who are the ones that enacted the present status quo to benefit themselves and their cronies in the private sector in the taxi business and in businesses & groups like labor unions associated with it. Just look at larger cities that have the 'medallion' system for examples. It's a racket worthy of '20s-era Chicago gangsters.

            There's a lot of money and power at stake here. These people will fight tooth and nail, spend bucket

          • Why do you think those regulations exist? Okay, some of them (particularly in places like NYC) are there as a result of regulator capture, but a lot of them are there because unregulated taxis ended up with things like poorly maintained and uninsured vehicles being involved in collisions and injuring their passengers. Try going somewhere with a completely unregulated taxi infrastructure sometime, it's not a pleasant experience.

            • Why do you think those regulations exist? Okay, some of them (particularly in places like NYC) are there as a result of regulator capture, but a lot of them are there because unregulated taxis ended up with things like poorly maintained and uninsured vehicles being involved in collisions and injuring their passengers. Try going somewhere with a completely unregulated taxi infrastructure sometime, it's not a pleasant experience.

              I would posit that todays taxis, even with the regulations...are still bad. I've

              • With most cabs of my past...my main concern was often holding my breath due to odors and trying not to stick to anything for the duration of the ride.

                The fact that this was your main concern and not the dying because the taxi didn't have properly maintained brakes or the driver didn't have a license, or being driven to the middle of nowhere and charged a large fee to be taken back, or just mugged and left on the side of the road, tells me all I need to know: you've benefitted hugely from regulations to the degree that regulated behaviour is so normal to you that you don't notice it.

    • Which means you have to book in advance - no street hailing - but totally matches the Uber ride style. It seems to work for us.

    • Taxi drivers are paid less [propertycasualty360.com] than uber drivers, especially in San Francisco, the area in question (Uber drivers make about $23.87/hour, compared to $12.96 for taxi drivers).

      Part of that is the regulations, so I guess you want poor people to earn even less money by making sure Uber drivers are paid as poorly. Please justify your inherently asshole position to the rest of the world.

  • This is nuts; unless you are proposing to tax all private car usage, this is encouraging people to stay in THEIR cars.

  • minimum wage & employment laws. People died for the 40 hour work week. The 'gig' economy chips away at those protections with a pickaxe. Also, what good does it do to tax them if the money goes right out the door in low income benefits? I'm not saying we pull the benefits, I'm saying we don't let them pay like crap.

    • minimum wage & employment laws. People died for the 40 hour work week. The 'gig' economy chips away at those protections with a pickaxe. Also, what good does it do to tax them if the money goes right out the door in low income benefits? I'm not saying we pull the benefits, I'm saying we don't let them pay like crap.

      People should have a choice of whether they want to be a W2 employee or a 1099 contractor.

      Are you against the individual having a say in their mode of employment, or way to pick up side mon

  • Lets make ridesharing less profitable to drivers who aren't even clearing minimum wage while destroying the capital value of the most expensive thing they own, while making those rides more expensive for people who ride in them. So the government has more money to blow.

    Woo hoo!

  • [ X ] If it moves, tax it, O Voracious Spenders To Buy Votes

    If you have a better explanation, let me know. I used a poetic O because srius stuff.

  • Instead of finding ways to support the hiring of locals by helping Uber/Lyft expand, they'd rather tax them out of existence in an effort to spend millions on mass transit systems which nobody will use even if, by some miracle, they're ever actually built.

  • Before they rush to raise funds...

    The should run a pilot program with highly experimental, 20-years-down-the-road technology.

    Implementing public transportation Which Does Not Suck(tm).

    You know: something new, and never seen before.

    Assuming they are successful, then they should come to us (the public) for funding.

    P.S.: How's that whole "high speed rail" thing working out for you? You got your funding; where's our results?

  • Remember all of those bonds and taxes you voted to approve previously to cover road and infrastructure improvements? Sorry, the politicians needed new carpeting in their offices and wanted to plant some palm trees along the route they drive to work. Be sure to re-elect them as you always do!

  • And the counsel shot it down. And Cleveland is as liberal as any city. Myself, I pay taxes(local/state/federal) to support Mass transportation. Have no problem with it either. Do NOT double tax me because I want to use an Uber or Lyft because the Mass Transportation sucks. If the mass transportation can not compete, then let it die. Or fix it so it can compete.

  • How can this not be obvious? At best it is a chauffeur service, maybe an upscale taxi.

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