Taxi cab drivers in the Big Apple are required to obtain a medallion in order to operate in the city legally. Intending to prevent a surplus of cabs, the New York City government has been artificially limiting the number of medallions it will issue. Today, there are currently only 13,587 medallions issued. That is only two medallions more than when the program was first created in 1937, despite a population growth of more than 1 million.
As such, the artificial scarcity created by the Democrat-led New York City government has skyrocketed the cost to obtain a medallion — the price of a medallion soared to over $1 million prior to the bubble bursting in late 2014. Many taxi drivers were forced to take out loans with high fees or interest-only payments in order to continue to operate their cabs. Consequently, more than 950 drivers have since filed for bankruptcy, according to The New York Times.
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The New York congresswoman’s calls for the federal government to bailout the taxi cab drivers comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to do it because of the high cost to the city. The mayor’s office contends that a bailout could cost New Yorkers as much as $13 billion.