Quote:
Originally Posted by HighwayStar
I thought the licenses were about $100,000 to *buy* outright. I don't believe this is an annual fee to the city.... someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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No it is not an annual fee to the city.
The city only considers taxis legal of they hold a taxi plate, and it only issues a limited number of plates. I suppose the rationale for this is to limit the supply of taxis in order to allow each plate holder to earn a reasonable living.
However, the number of plates is artificially limited, but they can be resold (from an existing plate holder to a new would-be plate holder- the city is not involved with the resale of the plates). The value of the plates has increased with their scarcity.
If the city decided that it would eliminate the cap and give a taxi license to anyone who wants one, Uber would presumably be allowed, BUT the value of the existing plates would collapse overnight, and there would be lots of very angry taxi plate holders.
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