Monday, June 4, 2012

Hold onto your medallions, Mike!

From the NY Post:

A Manhattan judge [Friday] temporarily banned the city from selling 2,000 taxi medallions and implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s outer-borough taxi plan until it has settled three lawsuits.

The temporary restraining order against the medallion auction is particularly damaging to City Hall, since Bloomberg had already budgeted $1 billion from the sale into the upcoming fiscal year. The first of the auctions had been scheduled for next month.

Judge Arthur Engoron sided with medallion owners and taxi lenders, who said the law granting the medallion auction and livery plan should have been legislated by the City Council.

Bloomberg had instead pushed the bill to Albany after negotiations in the council broke down.

“Both governments are democracies, but only one is solely answerable on Election Day to the constituents of the five boroughs, those directly affected by the taxi service at issue here,” the judge wrote.

Engoron said he issued the order because he expects the plaintiffs ultimately to succeed.

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