Henry Holling has been the most soft-spoken city manager that I can remember. Unless his recent predecessors, he rarely says much at council meetings.
But he stepped up the the plate and said that needed to be said at last night’s council meeting.
The debate was over a proposal to increase the fees taxi cabs are allowed to charge for riders. The proposal would have helped offset higher fuel prices.
But 4th District councilman Bill Spears moved — and 2nd district council member Barbara Van Auken seconded to instead draft a resolution urging the Illinois State Legislature to approve legislation waiving gasoline taxes for taxi cabs. He wanted the resolution drafted in time for the first council meeting in September.
Spears says he’s sympathetic, but opposed to raising rates.
Mayor Jim Ardis noted that drivers, not the companies, pay for the gasoline and expressed doubt the legislature could approve anything anytime soon. Council member Gary Sandberg, who like Ardis indicated he would vote for drafting the resolution, said that the rate increase would hit poor people the hardest. But Sandberg minimized the effect higher rates would have on visitors to the city, who mostly use hotel shuttle service back and forth from the airport. Council member Pat Nichting noted that the legislature would not be able to consider such legislation until the veto session, which happens after the September elections.
But Spears seemed unmoved.
Then Holling spoke up. He urged the council to not wait a month to vote on this rate increase. He noted that the taxi-cab business is “very marginal” and managing them is “very challenging” and it hard to attract and retain quality drivers. “A months difference … could very well mean a job, a couple taxis out of service. I don’t think that serves anyone’s best interest.”
At that point, Speared changed his motion and moved to direct staff to come back with a draft resolution at the next meeting, in two weeks. That motion passed unanimously.
As a libertarian, I think it’s not in the public’s long-term interests to regulate taxi prices OR the number of cabs allowed on city streets. Yeah, I can see the need to inspect cars. And I can see the need to license taxi drivers to help ensure they can drive safely. I’m a libertarian, not an anarchist. But let taxi-drivers charge what they want. If they charge too much, someone will come along and offer lower prices.
Government forgets sometimes that when it tries to regulate the amount of money a business can make, it also hampers the ability workers to make money. Most businesses are small businesses, or private contractors. In the rush to protect the poor from higher fuel prices, it seems that some folks temporarilly forgot about the working poor. If the drivers cannot earn a living wage driving a taxi, there aren’t going to be ANY taxis to take anyone anywhere.
Return to a free market system — in which the government doesn’t try to decide who wins and who loses — and the market will set a fair price that provides services for those who need it.
I hope the council remembers this when this comes up for a vote. If they can’t see their way through to freeing up the market, then at least let the poor drivers charge what they need to stay in business.
And kudos to Henry Holling for making a good case and knowing when to make it.
