Whipped Cream Difficulties

Here’s a mildly interesting set of facts.

Austin’s cab companies have donated $17,500 to three City Council candidates, including $4,550 to Randi Shade for her runoff election (and a total of $10,350 to Shade overall, which the Statesman implies came from cab companies).

Kathie Tovo has received $6,500 total, and $4,500 for the runoff election, “mostly” from cab drivers for one company.

I was not aware of this, but there’s apparently a movement by the drivers for “legacy permits”: that is, after five years of experience, drivers could get taxi permits directly, rather than the permits being issued to cab companies. Tovo says she supports this, and Shade has expressed opposition.

“That was an important thing because the cost the drivers pay to the companies make it hard for them to earn a living wage,” Tovo said. “And Randi Shade did not make that commitment.”

Neither candidate, nor (as far as I know) any of the previous candidates in the race, have come out in favor of abolishing the permit/franchise system and letting anyone who wants to pick up passengers for money.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 13th, 2011 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Austin, Clippings, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.