GA Special Interest Bills

Transportation Freedom under Assault as Georgia seeks to ban Uber & Lyft

The Rest of the Story | February 6, 2015 by gwilliams1975 | 0 Comments

They say the sequel is never as good as the original, a profound assessment of Georgia House Bill 224, the sequel to 2014′s House Bill 907, aka the Taxicab Monopoly Protection Act (TMPA). In this case, the truism is vindicated as the 2015 TMPA sequel is worse, much worse. During the past few years, companies like Uber and Lyft, aka Rideshare operators, have moved into the Transportation space previously dominated by the Taxicab industry. Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, and others offer a technology platform that allows users to schedule rides via a Smartphone application. A user opens the app, clicks a couple of icons, and boom, is connected with a driver complete with photograph and description of car. Needless to say, this experience, which also requires no cash, is generally far superior to the average cab encounter.
All this newfangled technology and improved customer service doesn’t sit too well with the entrenched Taxicab Monopoly and their legislator enablers. Cities, Counties, and even States across the country have moved to stifle these “disruptive” RideShare companies through onerous regulations and outright bans in some cases. Last year, the State of Georgia sought to regulate the Rideshare industry with the heavy handed House Bill 907, a bill that became so unpopular during the session that it never came up for a vote. Not to be deterred, the sequel to HB 907, this year known as HB 224, has been dropped into the hopper by some of the same legislators that were denied last year. If HB 907 was the Chicken Pox, then HB 224 is Shingles. It’s that bad. HB 224 is the ‘roided out, genetically modified, mutated, Toxic Avenging distant cousin of 907, taking draconian government cronyism to Soviet-style levels.
Clocking in at 14 pages of legalese, there’s plenty in the monstrosity to dislike, Greg’s List is going to peel back the onion on a couple of particularly stench mongering passages.
From the bill:
“AN ACT
To amend Chapter 60 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
2 general provisions regarding provisions applicable to counties and municipal corporations,
3 so as to preserve existing certificates of public necessity and convenience and medallion
4 systems for taxicabs and to restrict the future use thereof”
There you have it. The purpose of the bill is to PRESERVE existing “certificates of public necessity and convenience and medallion systems for taxicabs and to restrict the future use thereof…”
Preserving the sordid status quo is the true aim of this bill. The archaic Taxi Medallion “system” is the precise reason why companies like Uber and Lyft manifested in the first place. The Medallion system creates an Oligopoly, controlled by the Taxicab Cartels who do everything they can to restrict competition through legislation and local graft. Creating distractions and manipulative misdirections, the bill categorizes Uber and Lyft as “Transportation Referral Services”, which means they would be required by the bill to obtain Medallions from all applicable jurisdictions. Medallions are expensive and difficult to obtain, preserving the current system preserves the Taxicab Monopoly on transportation in Georgia.
HB 224 also expands the power of State Government significantly, effectively grandfathering in the current Medallion system from Counties and Municipalities and banning ones that don’t currently have regulations from EVER implementing them.
“Counties and municipalities which have adopted and have valid ordinances as of
40 July 1, 2014, requiring taxicabs to have certificates of public necessity and convenience or
41 medallions to operate within each such county or municipality may continue to require
42 such certificates or medallions. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, no county
43 or municipality shall enact, adopt, or enforce any ordinance or regulation which requires
44 taxicabs to have certificates of public necessity and convenience or medallions to operate
45 within such county or municipality”.
Alan Powell, “Republican”, from Hartwell, GA and Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, is once again the lead sponsor on the 2015 Taxicab Monopoly Protection Act. He is currently joined by

2) Dunahoo, Emory 30th (3) Carson, John 46th
(4) Rutledge, Dale 109th (5) Hitchens, Bill 161st (6) Jasperse, Rick 11th

Public awareness about HB 224 is increasing rapidly and the issue is sure to be hotly debated under the Gold Dome.
State Senator Josh McKoon voiced his displeasure on a Facebook post:
“I am very disturbed that legislation has recently been introduced in the General Assembly to stifle ride sharing technology like Uber and Lyft in Georgia. Conservatives should want to make sure regulation allows free and open competition. If companies develop better ways to deliver services, we should not punish them by changing the legal environment to run them out of our state!”, said Mckoon.

In a year where finding more revenue for Transportation initiatives has taken on heightened importance it’s truly mystifying that Republican legislators would sign on to a bill which clearly inhibits Transportation alternatives across the State.
Greg’s List would be remiss in our due diligence if we didn’t research possible motives for such onerous legislation. A cursory glance of Rep. Alan Powell’s campaign disclosure reveals some dubious donors.
According to the disclosure, the Atlanta Taxicab Association gave Powell $2500 on September 9, 2014.
“Atlanta Taxicab Association, 1042 Lindbergh Drive
Atlanta, GA 30324, 09/09/2014, Monetary, General
2014 $2,500.00″
Is $2500 the going rate for Crony Protectionist Legislation? Seems like quite a bargain. One can only speculate that Powell, et al will seek to leverage some of the negative PR promulgated by Uber during the past 12 months. As currently written, HB 224 would foist the same draconian regulations on Uber/Lyft that have made taking a Cab in Atlanta a Third World experience. Powell and his Taxi Cartel buddies say they only want to “level the playing field.”
It’s unfortunate their “level playing field” is in Mogadishu.

http://gregslistlive.blog.com/2015/02/06/transportation-freedom-under-assault-as-georgia-seeks-to-ban-uber-lyft/