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Current through October 23, 2012
The Council of the District of Columbia ("Council") finds that:
(1) Passenger transportation by taxicab is an integral and important component of public transit within the District.
(2) The business of transporting passengers and baggage for hire by taxicab is charged with an important public interest requiring governmental supervision, regulation, and control.
(3) Governmental regulation of the taxi industry in the District has been and is presently marked by a fragmented, decentralized, and uncoordinated system of regulation involving no less than 7 different administrative offices, in addition to the Public Service Commission, the Mayor, and the Council.
(4) Considering the importance of the taxi industry to public transportation within the District, there should be established a centralized regulatory mechanism for the furtherance of coherent, efficient, and enforceable regulation, and for the establishment of sound taxi transportation policy.
(5) Recommendations have been made over the course of several decades by various private and commissioned studies, task forces, public and private groups, individuals, and Congressional committees and subcommittees urging regulatory reform of the taxicab industry and the creation and consolidation of regulation into a single agency or bureau.
(6) Based upon the consistency of recommendations made over the years relating to regulatory reform of the system of taxi supervision, and based upon the Council's own evaluation of the present structure of governmental regulation, the Council finds that regulatory consolidation is in the public interest.
(7) The taxicab industry within the District, although impressed with certain characteristics of a public utility, is nonetheless wholly comprised of thousands of individual licensees conducting business on a self-employment basis.
(8) In view of the individual licensee nature of the structure and organization of the District of Columbia taxicab industry, the Council considers it inefficient and against the public interest to continue regulation of the industry under a statutory scheme, and by an agency of government more efficiently fitted to the regulation of franchised monopoly utilities, and, because of the Public Service Commission's ever increasing regulatory burden with respect to monopoly utilities, considers a transfer of its jurisdiction over taxicabs in the public interest.
(Mar. 25, 1986, D.C. Law 6-97, § 2, 33 DCR 703.)
HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 40-1701.
Emergency Act Amendments
For temporary amendment of section, see § 4(f) of the Confirmation Emergency Amendment Act of 1999 (D.C. Act 13-25, March 15, 1999, 46 DCR 2971).
For temporary (90 day) amendment of section, see § 1602 of the Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Support Congressional Review Emergency Act of 2000 (D.C. Act 13-438, October 20, 2000, 47 DCR 8740).
Legislative History of Laws
Law 6-97, "District of Columbia Taxicab Commission Establishment Act of 1985," was introduced in Council and assigned Bill No. 6-159, which was referred to the Committee on Public Services and Cable Television. The Bill was adopted on first and second readings on December 17, 1985, and January 14, 1986, respectively. Signed by the Mayor on January 28, 1986, it was assigned Act No. 6-125 and transmitted to both Houses of Congress for its review.
Delegation of Authority
Rescission of Delegation of authority pursuant to D.C. Law 6-97, the "District of Columbia Taxicab Commission Establishment Act of 1985", see Mayor's Order 98-174, November 10, 1998 (45 DCR 8201).
Miscellaneous Notes
Establishment--Task Force on Taxicab Reform, see Mayor's Order 2001-146, October 3, 2001 (48 DCR 9518).
Law 19-184 amended this section only "upon the inclusion of its fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan, as certified by the Chief Financial Officer to the Budget Director of the Council in a certification published by the Council in the District of Columbia Register." As of the most recent updated publication of this section, the certification required for Law 19-184 has not been made. Therefore the amendments have not been incorporated into this section.
