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Drivers and supporters join a picket line at City Hall on April 21 for a spirited rally supporting Proposition K of 1978 and opposing the MTA's plans to raise $15 million for Muni through the sale of taxi medallions.

MTA Budgets $15 Million From Taxi Medallion Sales Move Would Destroy Proposition K, Subject Drivers to Desperate Competition by Bud Hazelkorn UTW Chair

“We are not supportive of an effort to merge the Taxi industry unless proper guarantees are made to protect Proposition K. . . .”

— Letter from Mayor Gavin Newsom and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin to SFMTA Executive Director Nathaniel Ford, October 3, 2007

In one of the worst local examples, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's budget will overturn the foundation of the city's cab industry, Proposition K, which rewards drivers who stay in the business with control of city-owned medallions that carry extra income and privileges. Specifically, the staff of the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA), working with the mayor's office, has proposed selling medallions at hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to raise $15 million for Muni. Not only will this destroy Proposition K, but the competition of hundreds of new cabs would place an impossible burden on cab drivers who are struggling to live as their incomes vanish along with tourists, business travelers and citizen riders.

Selling medallions makes as much sense as auctioning parcels of Golden Gate Park or selling seats on the Board of Supervisors. If you sell a public park, it's no longer public. If you sell seats on the Board, you lose the democracy upon which you've built your entire society. And if you sell medallions, eliminating the chance of advancement, why drive for 20 years, especially with the money getting worse every year? Who's going to drive a cab when you pay more to work than you bring home?

Interestingly, there is no similar talk of cutting services to the Mayor's pet constituencies. As Paul Hogarth, of BeyondChron.com, points out, Newsom claims his budget “‘doesn't come close’ to balancing it on the backs of Public Health (DPH) or Human Services (HSA).” This, says Hogarth, is “at best misleading, and at worst a lie.” For example, contrary to the $43 million the Mayor says he's pulling from the city hospitals, S.F. General and Laguna Honda, he's actually cutting $100 million. He's completely eliminating programs like Central City SRO Collaborative which organizes and provides legal support for more than 30,000 low-income residents who live in SROs (single room occupancy) in the Tenderloin, SOMA and Chinatown. Cab drivers should be concerned about this because many of us live in them.

Moreover, instead of the 28 percent of his staff that Newsom claims to be firing, “figures show only nine percent of his staff are being laid off” while his “Office of Public Policy & Finance (which includes his bloated media relations division) will actually get 29 percent more this year under his proposal,” Hogarth says. Meanwhile, the politically connected police and fire departments are getting off scot-free.

Also under consideration is a plan to reward the major cab companies, like Yellow Cab, DeSoto and Luxor, with new “franchise” medallions, for which those cab companies have been lobbying the MTA and the mayor for months. And if a driver ever has the opportunity to
buy a medallion for him- or herself, those companies will likely be only too happy to help finance them.

At this point, the MTA Board must still determine whether and how it will sell the medallions. Christiane Hayashi, the beleaguered Taxi Director will presumably hold more meetings to come up with a plan. She must do this soon. The money is in reserve so she is not compelled
to spend it. Theoretically, she could recommend against selling…

What's left for cab drivers is a ballot proposition. The Board of Supervisors will soon vote on Chris Daly's proposition to prohibit the sale of taxi medallions. Cab drivers – regardless of their particular faction – must show up to support Daly's measure and the continuing importance of Prop K.

We still have a chance to stop this move. But to do so, you must show up and speak up!

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