Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Governor to veto cabbie bill

Faced with a threat of a cabdriver strike that would wreak havoc on the tourism industry in Las Vegas, Gov. Kenny Guinn today will veto a bill that would have stopped cabbies from accepting tips from businesses for delivering passengers to them, Guinn's spokesman said.

John Trent, assistant press secretary for the governor, said this morning that the veto message was being written up and would be issued later today.

Ruthie Jones, a spokeswoman for the Industrial Technical Professional Employees that represents 2,000 drivers in Las Vegas, said she "loved the governor" for this action. Cabdrivers "will be elated over this," she said.

Greg Bambic, president of the Professional Drivers Association, said it was "wonderful" that "the governor has come to the defense of cabdrivers in Las Vegas."

Hundreds of phone calls and e-mails had been flooding the governor's office from cabdrivers in Southern Nevada asking him to veto the legislation. "We bombarded the governor," Jones said.

Bambic complained that Assembly Bill 505 would have prohibited the drivers from accepting show tickets or even a bottle of water for bringing a customer to a business. The drivers also receive up to about $20 per passenger from some striptease and nude dancing clubs when they drop off people at those businesses.

The bill originally was supported by Guinn because it called for the elimination of the state's Transportation Services Authority and put its duties under the control of the state Public Service Commission. But on the next to the last day of the Legislature, an amendment by Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, was inserted into the bill to prohibit cabdrivers statewide from accepting gratutities for bringing a customer to their location.

Angry cabdrivers had vowed to go on strike and shut down the Las Vegas Strip this weekend in protest of the measure.

About 1,000 taxi drivers paraded along Las Vegas Boulevard South into downtown Las Vegas on Thursday night in protest.

At green lights along the Strip, cabdrivers stopped their taxis and honked their horns, snarling traffic along the boulevard.

The cabbies threatened to stop driving on the Strip, boycott McCarran International Airport and sue for discrimination if Guinn did not veto the bill intended to prevent cabbies from diverting passengers to businesses that reward them with tips and other gratuities.

Cabdriver Patricia Marse, a single mother, complained that the legislation was "very discriminating." Limousine and van drivers as well as doormen were not included in the bill's language.

Marse attended the third rally held this week on her day off, taking her twin children with her.

She said that if the prohibition became law, she would be unable to support her family.

The mood at the Las Vegas Outlet Mall parking lot protest was tense with an undercurrent of fury. One driver carried a sign that read, "Cabdrivers move the money through Las Vegas. We want our fair share."

Dan Spellman said he and his wife e-mailed Guinn in protest of the ban on gratuities.

"We live and breathe this job 12 hours a day, five days a week," Spellman said, noting that he works overtime when big conventions come to town.

Talk of a wildcat strike spread through the crowd Thursday night.

"I'm willing if it comes down to it (a strike)," cabdriver Cal Moroianu said. "It needs to be done."

An indication of what a strike might be like was felt as taxi service was temporarily affected at McCarran International Airport during the protest. Relatively few taxis arrived to pick up passengers waiting outside baggage claim. The pickup line stretched to more than 100 people at one point.

"I don't usually see this kind of a line this time of night," said Las Vegas resident Dave Clark as he traveled the line.

"It looks like a Friday," Clark said of the wait and the crowd.

Some airport employees directed passengers to limos and shuttle buses as alternatives.

Mike Park, arriving from San Francisco, said limo drivers told him he would do better not waiting for a taxi.

"All the limo people were telling me that there was a protest, that the cabdrivers were causing a mess," Park said.

If the governor had signed the bill, the cabbies threatened to shutdown the Strip.

Craig Harris, a cabdriver in Las Vegas for more than 20 years and managing editor of Trip Sheet, a publication that covers taxicab industry matters, said that ethics complaints against Guinn and Oceguera, author of the amendment, were being prepared prior to the veto.

Oceguera said he sponsored the amendment after being approached by a coalition of businesses, mostly restaurants, nightclubs and strip clubs.

"They felt like they were being extorted," he said.

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.

The amendment 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.

"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," Oceguera said in a written statement released late Wednesday.

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