City lawmakers may have cast a proposed $1 increase on all cab rides as an “out-of-towner” fee Wednesday, but as news of the idea spread, Chicagoans were taking it personally.
“I have to take a cab to work every morning — that is five days a week,” said Cinthia Malava, 23, who must be at her job as a hotel hostess on the Near North Side by 6 a.m. “I think that is a little much.”
Randy Conklin, who works in the city, was more emphatic.
“I took a cab four times today,” said Conklin, as he walked down Chicago’s taxi-blanketed Michigan Avenue. “So that one dollar would cost (some money from) my family’s income.”
The $1 surcharge on all Chicago cab rides would raise $70 million per year, according to the proposal introduced Wednesday by Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, and Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th.
Cabs “are mainly used by visitors to Chicago, the businesspeople who are on expense accounts, and it isn’t a big amount,” Burke said. “A $1 surcharge isn’t going to hurt anybody in my opinion, and it doesn’t impact Chicago citizens.”
But Gilbert Uranta, 50, a Chicago cabdriver for 15 years, threw his hands up in exasperation when he heard about the plan.
Aldermen have rejected calls by cabbies to raise fares to help them. In Chicago, cabbies pay a $78-a-month ground transportation tax and a gasoline tax. Uranta said that ultimately, the added $1 will mean fewer tips for the drivers.
“They are trying to use us to collect their money,” Uranta said. “The driver always loses.”
Yet Danelle White, who lives in London and traveled to Chicago this week for business, said she believes the city will eventually gain.
“To maintain a city, you have to pay tax. It’s just a fact of life,” said White as she jumped out of a cab Wednesday. “It seems like it would be worth the money to help with the upkeep of the city.”
