Jim Rosica
State House Republican Leader Dana Young has stood aside while other lawmakers tried to suss out how to regulate hired-car outfits such as Uber and Lyft.
But her time on the sidelines is over, she told FloridaPolitics.com on Friday.
“I will be putting all my energy into this,” said Young, who has represented her Tampa district since 2010. She didn’t say which of the many competing policy proposals she will eventually support.
(3:30 p.m. update: After this post appeared, Young tweeted: “It’s time to resolve these issues and let Uber operate. If there is a middle ground to be found, I will find it.”)
Young, a lawyer, explained that she stayed out of the debate because she was tied up with other issues, including gambling and craft beer.
Meantime, bills kept dying.
Previous efforts ran the gamut from just mandating certain kinds of insurance coverage to forbidding local governments from regulating Uber and others.
The ride-booking services argued they were technology companies first, connecting “people who need a ride with people who can provide one,” and should not be regulated like traditional taxis and limos.
The taxi and limo concerns said it’s only fair to make Uber and others play by the same rules, such as vehicle inspections, insurance coverage and driver background checks.
Young also watched as Hillsborough County’s Public Transportation Commission (PTC) – which regulates taxis, limos and wreckers – slammed Uber drivers with tickets and sued the San Francisco-based company.
“The dysfunction between the PTC and the transportation network companies has got to stop,” she said.
In fact, she said, one reading of the law that created the commission suggests that Uber, Lyft and similar companies are outside the PTC’s jurisdiction.
Young admits she has friends in the taxi industry and had hoped they would work out their differences with the ride-booking services.
“They didn’t,” she said. “So now, I’m involved.”
As he has said before, Florida Taxicab Association spokesman Roger Chapin doubted that Uber would follow any law that impedes their business model.
Chapin is vice president of Mears Transportation, a Central Florida taxi and hired-car provider.
“They could comply now with 24/7 insurance requirements and (stricter) background checks but the problem is, if they do, they can no longer charge half as much as a taxi,” he said.
