One of the classic tricks recommended in the good book of politics is to provide a diversion, to somehow change the subject when you can’t win on the merits.

The current occupant of the White House long ago perfected the art of rolling out a distracting shiny object when times get tough. Now, Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing companies are following that example in a misleading effort to block Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed tax hike on such companies.

The shiny object in this case is the notion that the tax somehow would be unfair, especially to poor African Americans who just want to be able to get to the doctor and the like. To make that case, the companies have enlisted black ministers to thunder “do not tax our people” and somehow convinced a newspaper columnist to conclude that the arrival of app-dispatched ground transportation is “manna from heaven.”

Oh, hockey puck! Or as Rosa Escareno, commissioner of the city's Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection, puts it, “The companies are trying to mess with people’s minds. They’re misusing facts to muddy the waters and confuse people.”

The truth is exactly the opposite of what the companies are spinning.

In fact, Lightfoot’s levy is intended to shore up the Chicago Transit Authority, which serves a lot more black people than Uber ever will but is under increasing pressure to slash its service as the ride-hailers pull away its business. And Lightfoot’s plan does so without impacting most ride-hailing trips on the West and South sides, many of which will actually see a tax cut. Instead, Lightfoot’s plan zaps single rides downtown to or from places such as Lincoln Park, the Near West Side and the McCormick Place area—areas that have excellent CTA service, for those willing to use it.

Here’s the details behind the phony “save Uber” campaign.

Under current law, the city imposes a flat tax of 72 cents on all ride-hailing trips citywide. A chunk of the money goes to the CTA, which uses it to improve service that generally is decent but certainly could gain from a lot more investment. With that tax still fairly low, ride-share vehicles have begun to flood the central area of the city, causing such severe congestion that it’s almost impossible to get around some times.

Lightfoot wants to change that. Her plan is to boost taxes to as much as $3 a trip for single-rider trips to or from downtown, to raise it slightly to $1.25 a trip for single-rider trips elsewhere in Chicago and to cut to 65 cents for single-rider trips anywhere in Chicago except downtown.

Lightfoot says the plan would net $40 million a year. According to the city, 75 percent of that would come from trips downtown. Very little would come from trips in predominantly minority areas.

For instance, just 5 percent of the 400,000 annual trips that began in Englewood involve downtown, according to data collected by the city. And over 50 percent of the trips involved two or more riders splitting the fare. The latter would see their tax lowered.

For those who think a well-off Lincoln Parker ought to pay a bit if they refuse to take the CTA and insist on their own private, street-clogging vehicle, this tax is the way to go. I wish more of that $40 million than the proposed $2 million was going to the CTA, but I understand Lightfoot has an $838 million city budget gap to plug first.

For those who think Uber and Lyft provide a lot better service in minority communities than taxicabs ever did, this plan leaves that new service untouched. Uber and Lyft would have just as big of an incentive to serve those areas as they do today, since fewer than 1 in 10 trips to neighborhoods such as Austin, Pilsen, Pullman or Lawndale involve downtown and that proposed $3-a-trip tax.

But it’s easier to draw attention with a charge of racial disparity.

Once upon a time in this town, Chicago had a thriving taxicab industry, an industry that helped thousands of immigrants and nonwhite people claw their way into the middle class because it provided a good income. Now that business is a shell of what it was. The cab companies certainly fouled their own nest. But Uber and its low-cost, low-wage model was the real killer.

Once upon a time in this town, political progressives understood that good public transportation was crucial to Chicago, that we could not survive and thrive as a city if everyone moved around in a single-passenger vehicle, like Los Angeles. That’s why you pay a sales tax to subsidize the CTA every time you shop. But now cost pressures are building on the CTA, which sooner or later is going to have to ratchet down its service if riders keep departing.

I hope some of this will sink in before aldermen vote on Lightfoot’s plan in coming weeks. Uber is putting on quite a magic act right now. But it’s no more real than pulling a rabbit hole full of bunnies out of your hat.