The Bill CB-36-2010 to increase the number of taxi certificates from 785 to 1,185 and more is illadvised.

The P.G. County Council will likely pass on July 13th, 2010, especially if there is little opposition hence the secretive movement of the legislation, a bill that will flood the County with even more cabs when there isn't enough business for the current 785 providers. The bill CB-036-2010 found hidden in the 'Legislative Information Service' of the County webpage will flood the County with taxis by giving, yes giving, 400 additional taxi medallions to mostly immigrants and increasing the number of medallions from 785 to 1,185 or more. It is clear that the taxi business, with the economy in recession or depression, cannot sustain adding more taxis to the County but of course that is of little concern to the County Council members, the Advancement Project and Casa de Maryland that helped push the bill with the largely Ethiopian community of drivers that will benefit. A P.G. medallion currently sells for about twenty thousand dollars $20,000. Introduced by Councilmen Dernoga, the Chair and Olson, Chair of the Transportation Committee, the bill was easily drafted by the County's ''in house'' lawyer, Mr. Todd Turner who simply added language to section 20 of a bill that was written ten years ago. I'm told he had also headed the ''taxi taskforce'', supposedly a small panel that at least made the appearance of examining the issue.

In a call to Mr. Nabely of Silver and Yellow Cab he said that the business could not justify or support adding more taxis at this time. In questioning taxi drivers at the Greenbelt Metro, almost all agreed that there were far too many of them there. The taxi stand there allows nine to ten cabs at the most to legally wait for fares but the stand regularly has between fifteen and twenty five cabs waiting one to two hours for a patron.

When asked why they wait at the Metro many said that the various sections designated by the computer dispatch system already had too many drivers logged in.
Many drivers said there should be less cabs, not more based on the amount of business.

Sadly in observations and conversations with the mostly immigrant taxi drivers I found that deviant methods were being employed to deal with the long waits at the overcrowded Metro. Some drivers would over-quote rates to the nearby Springhill apartment complex or refuse to take them at all saying that they were ''waiting for their customer'' even though they were first out in the taxi stand line. One driver cut in front of seven cabs in the line because he said that a cab didn't pull up fast enough. One driver said that he ''works sixteen hours a day, (a violation of the twelve hour cap), but it is still better than working at 7-11 with benefits.''

Some drivers told me that they didn't care if adding more taxis to the system ruined the business in the market for everyone, they wanted their own PG medallions. Most revealing, one driver from Ethiopia said that owning a cab medallion rather than renting would help them with regard to the INS. He said that the Immigration and Naturalization Service tends to favor business owners. The driver added, ''I think we will get what we want from the County because everybody else is sleeping.''

An American taxi driver who lives in the area said ''I didn't come from the other side of the World to do this job but when I come out to work there are already too many cabs here.''

To increase the number of taxis in Prince George's County at a time of severe economic recession is flagrantly irresponsible as the evidence is clear that there is not sufficient business to adequately support the industry's current providers. Ridership is down significantly and the economy for the working class is getting worse. Some experts have stated that the nation is in depression, not recession, in open defiance of the mainstream media's propaganda. Recently a pundit on NPR revealed that forty million Americans are on food stamps. The unemployment rate in the County may mirror the unknown national average. To flood the taxi market with additional cabs at this time will destroy what remains of the current industry.

The Prince George's County Council members and the Executive may be contacted individually by e-mail and phone numbers found on the County webpage, www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/