Burton cabbie referrals vanish

Monday, Feb. 4, 2002 | 8:58 a.m.

The heated debate over whether cabbies should receive kickbacks from local businesses has resulted in more fallout.

Strip magician Lance Burton, a longtime friend of the cabbies, is discontinuing his "referral rewards" program for drivers, his publicist Wayne Bernath said.

Burton's promotion -- which offered cabbies free tickets to his show and $1 for each customer steered his way -- was featured in a Jan. 27 Sun story on the kickback controversy.

The program, which had been in existence the past 18 months, wasn't attracting that many people to the show, Bernath said.

"The story brought it to our attention that it wasn't working out anyway," he said.

But Bernath said Burton, who performs at the Monte Carlo, plans to continue supporting cabbies.

He will continue to publish the Trip Sheet, a taxicab industry magazine, and any driver who wants to see his show still can sign up for free tickets, Bernath said.

"We feel they deserve to be rewarded for putting themselves on the front lines every day," Bernath said.

Dozens of businesses over the years have provided kickbacks to drivers to bring them customers.

Cabbies are prohibited from accepting such tips under a state Taxicab Authority regulation, as well as state and local laws. But because the practice has become so widespread and important to the livelihood of the drivers, the authority has rarely enforced the regulation.

Last week Taxicab Authority Administrator John Plunkett said he would ask his five-member board to consider repealing the regulation.

Recently the subject of tipping drivers sparked a bidding war within the highly competitive adult nightclub industry.

Factions within the industry now are locked in a bitter legal fight over whether they can continue providing the financial perks to the drivers.

District Judge Sally Loehrer issued a preliminary injunction on Jan. 7 banning cabbies from accepting tips from several the topless clubs. On Thursday District Judge Mark Gibbons found one of the clubs, Pussycats, guilty of violating that order and fined the club $500. He also ordered the club to pay $29,000 in legal fees.