Cabbies lash out at bill

Cy Ryan and Mary Manning

Thursday, June 9, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

More than 500 cabdrivers jammed the Las Vegas Premium Outlets parking lot Wednesday night, demanding that Gov. Kenny Guinn veto a bill that prohibits them from receiving tips and other gratuities from businesses.

If the governor signs the bill -- intended to prevent cabbies from diverting passengers to businesses that reward them -- they threatened to shut down the Las Vegas Strip.

"Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity," drivers chanted as they pumped their fists in the air.

The cabdrivers said the language in an 11th-hour amendment to a bill would end free meals, free bottles of water on hot days and complimentary show tickets.

"We provide for our families," said Paul Hiropoelos, who said he works a 12-hour day driving taxis.

Some passengers tip and others don't, but the gratuities provided by hotels, clubs and restaurants help support families, he said.

Some of those freebies contribute up to 30 percent of a driver's annual pay, the drivers said.

"This is blatant discrimination," Whittlesea cabdriver Ava Vandermar said. She noted that the bill did not place restrictions on bus, van or limousine drivers.

"If this doesn't stop, we're going to shut the city down," Yellow Cab driver Al Broze said. "If the governor does sign it (Assembly Bill 505), we'll walk. We'll shut the town down."

Cabdriver Phillip Alexander argued that the bill is "unconstitutional" because it singles out taxi drivers.

"If the governor signs this bill, it will show how corrupt this state is," Alexander said.

The drivers demonstrated Tuesday and Wednesday night. There were so many participating in the rally on Wednesday that they could not fit into the New Frontier hotel's parking lot. They tried Mandalay Bay's Convention Center parking lot, but security told them to leave. So they moved down Las Vegas Boulevard South to Las Vegas Premium Outlets.

For Craig Harris, a cabdriver in Las Vegas for more than 20 years and managing editor of Tip Sheet, a publication that covers taxicab industry issues, the no-gratuity restriction in the bill is disgusting.

The cabdrivers have been protesting by phoning and e-mailing complaints to Guinn, asking him to veto the legislation that includes the ban.

"They're not even answering the phone in Carson City anymore," Harris said. "They got the message."

About 330 complaints, most of them from Las Vegas, have been received by the governor's office and as a result Guinn doesn't know if he will sign Assembly Bill 505, his spokesman said.

Greg Bortolin, press secretary for Guinn, said that Guinn's legal advisor, Keith Munro, is examining the bill.

"It certainly has given the governor pause," Bortolin said.

Guinn, in a statement Wednesday, said, "I am terribly concerned when an amendment that is so hurtful to our hard-working cabdrivers is slipped into an 80-page piece of legislation at the last minute without an open discussion or an opportunity for the public to give its position on this issue."

Harris said if Guinn signs the bill, it will take the Public Utilities Commission three months to re-write the transportation rules, so cabdrivers would have plenty of time to demonstrate.

The tip and gratuity ban was added as an amendment onto AB505, a bill that abolishes the state Transportation Services Authority and melds its authority into the state Public Utilities Commission. That plan was supported by the governor.

When the Senate and Assembly could not reach agreement on the bill, a conference committee was appointed to work out differences.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, a member of that conference committee, said the cabdriver amendment was brought by Assembly Assistant Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.

Nolan said that Oceguera told his colleagues that the amendment was needed because without it small businesses would continue to be left at a disadvantage by the practice. "They cannot give 10 bucks" to the cabbies, Nolan said Oceguera told him. He said Oceguera also argued that the amendment was simply a clarification of existing regulation.

Oceguera said this morning that he sponsored the amendment after being approached by a coalition of businesses -- primarily restaurants, nightclubs and strip clubs -- that didn't want to have to pay cabbies.

"They felt their business depends on having to give kickbacks," he said. "They felt like they were being extorted."

Businesses generally pay cabbies from $5 to $25 a passenger to bring them customers, taxicab industry sources said.

Oceguera refused to identify the businesses that approached him, but he said the coalition planned to go public supporting the amendment as early as this afternoon.

He also said the 11th-hour debate over the amendment was an open process and, that if the governor had any concerns, he should have been following the bill more closely.

The amendment, approved Sunday, less than two days before the Legislature adjourned, says that drivers shall "not accept a tip, gift, gratuity, money fee or any other valuable consideration of any kind" from a business that is licensed by a county or a city or any local government licensing board.

In a written statement released late Wednesday, Oceguera said: "Right now, unscrupulous business owners are violating local ordinances by giving cabdrivers money to take their customers to destinations they do not intend to visit."

When the bill passed with the amendment, legislators said it was intended in part to stop cabbies from pressuring passengers to visit certain brothels or strip clubs instead of others.

Oceguera, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said the amendment "makes significant strides in addressing the problem of taxicab passenger diversion in Las Vegas," he said.

"This bill in no way affects cab drivers' ability to earn tips from their customers from taking them to their destination of choice," he said. "Passage of AB505 simply enhances the Taxicab Authority's ability to stop the already illegal practices of diverting unsuspecting passengers."

Sun Metro columnist Jeff German contributed to this report.