(
)
Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to let livery cabs pick up street fares in the outer boroughs has hit a major speed bump.
State Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) — the sponsor of the Bloomberg-backed bill in the state Legislature — now wants to change the measure in a way that would please the powerful taxi industry, which strongly opposes Hizzoner’s plan.
Golden, one of the mayor’s biggest allies in Albany, wants to shrink the number of permits allowing liveries to accept street hails by a third — from 30,000 to around 10,000.
“The mayor is still for the original bill, but there’s a lot of people upset in the industry,” Golden said.
“There is no reason to pass a bill that is going to affect people’s livelihoods. I think what we should try to do is balance it, if we can.”
Many in the taxi industry believe that the drastic change of the rules would cause medallion values to plummet.
Medallions have recently sold for an all-time high of about $705,000.
One study commissioned by the Taxicab Service Association — a group of medallion money lenders that opposes the plan — found that owners could lose up to 25 percent of their income if the rules change.
That same study, analyzed by NERA Economic Consulting, also reported that individual taxi drivers could see an 8 percent income drop.
Currently, only yellow cabs can pick up passengers off the street.
“We’re hopeful that the bill will be sent to the governor soon and that he will sign it,” said Allan Fromberg, a spokesman for the Taxi & Limousine Commission.
Golden began negotiating changes after listening to feedback from the yellow-cab industry, which has rallied against the plan ever since the mayor unveiled it earlier this year.
“I think [the bill] needs some fixes, and if these fixes are agreed to, it’ll be a much better bill than what’s presently there,” Golden said.
He also wants to include tough penalties for rogue drivers and a requirement that all livery cars have GPS navigating systems, as yellow cabs now do.
The bill passed the state Senate and Assembly in June but has languished in legislative limbo ever since.
The fact that it hasn’t been sent to Gov. Cuomo for signature is no accident, said a source.
“It’s sort of a hot potato no one wants to deal with right now,” the source said.
Cuomo has until Dec. 31 to sign the bill — if he gets it.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has been in no rush to send the bill to Cuomo, said the source, because the deep-pocketed taxi industry is pressuring him to let it die.
A Skelos spokesman denied that, saying, “We send bills up to the governor as he requests them.”