Never mind nickel-and-diming. The city is now stooping to nickel-and-pennying.
This week, The Post reported how the city’s taxi drivers are now being charged a new tax of 6 cents — i.e., a nickel and a penny — per ride. The hidden add-on is supposed to go toward programs that help cabbies figure out ObamaCare (good luck with that one) and for disability insurance “over and above” what medallion owners must already provide.
Six cents a ride may not sound like much. But for drivers who handle more than 100 fares a week (many get more), it adds up to a new $300-plus annual tax.
Cab drivers are right to be livid, particularly given that some of them thought the money would be used to pay for actual health insurance — not instructions on how to buy it.
But cab riders should also be fuming, because the ObamaCare surcharge was OK’d by the city last year as part of a fare increase that New Yorkers pay each time they get into a cab.
It’s government-creep in action: Riders foot the tab for a fare hike that includes a hidden tax to pay for government-mandated services to help drivers figure out a law that’s too complicated for them to understand but nonetheless requires them to buy insurance they don’t necessarily want or need.
And the president wonders why ObamaCare remains unpopular?