Metro

Judge delays de Blasio’s wheelchair-accessibility taxi surcharge

A federal judge is putting the brakes on Mayor de Blasio’s plan to make all taxis wheelchair accessible until the administration proves it’s not soaking riders with a 30-cent-per-ride surcharge to pay for vehicle upgrades.

Manhattan federal Judge George Daniels made the request during a May 23 hearing after getting a letter from the Greater New York Taxi Association claiming the surcharge “will create a new slush fund for the TLC to administer.”

The fund is expected to generate at least $50 million a year.

Daniels said he expected to eventually sign off on the accessibility plan — which before the hearing was believed to be a done deal — but for “fairness” wants assurances that the TLC can prove the per-ride charge is needed.

The city plans to implement the surcharge beginning next year to fund upgrades to make at least 7,500 of the city’s 13,000-plus yellow cabs wheelchair accessible by 2020.

Only about 600 cabs currently offer such accessibility. The surcharge plan would help settle a 2011 lawsuit filed by accessibility- advocacy groups against the city.

Steve Mintz, a lawyer for the taxi association, said that there are no “mechanisms for accountability” in the surcharge plan and that the TLC “already has a poor track record” when it comes to collecting special fees to fund new programs.

TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said the agency plans to “provide the judge all the data and methodology necessary to satisfy his questions.”