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Bay Area Cities Consider Rideshare Tax On Uber, Lyft (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A local city council member is beginning to float the idea of taxing ridehailing companies like Uber and Lyft as a possible way to raise millions of dollars and help pay for local public transportation and infrastructure improvements. If the effort is successful, Oakland could become the first city in California -- Uber and Lyft's home state -- to impose such a tax. However, it's not clear whether Oakland or any other city in the Golden State has the authority to do so under current state rules. Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan told the East Bay Express that she wants the city council to put forward a ballot measure that would tax such rides. A similar proposal in nearby San Francisco, projecting a fee of $0.20 to $1 per ride, would allow the city to collect an estimated $12.5 to $62.5 million annually. However, an October 2017 city analysis noted that San Francisco "cannot initiate locally without state authorizing legislation" and that the fee "may disproportionately impact lower-income households."

3 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Tax them as taxis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah exactly, lets drag the better one down into the same pile of garbage. Thats perfect.

  2. Re:Tax them as taxis by BlueStrat · · Score: 1, Troll

    Why not just regulate and tax them as taxi services... since they *are* taxi services?

    Maybe because those very same government taxes, laws, ordinances, and regulations, along with the way they are implemented and enforced, are the exact reason WHY taxis suck such a huge bag of dicks that things like Uber and Lyft have risen despite laws and regulations against them in order to fulfill the population's need for quality and affordable individual on-call transportation that taxi services and mass transit in the US utterly fail at providing?

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  3. Dear Californians by Stonent1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Please rise up against your oppressors, sincerely, Texas.