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Long-time Syracuse taxi driver Jacque Zenner sits behind the wheel of his cab on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Syracuse, N.Y. Zenner is opposed to a bill pending before the New York State Legislature that would enable transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft to operate throughout New York, instead of just in New York City.

(Mike McAndrew)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- In the final three days of their legislative session, New York state lawmakers will try to resolve whether to allow Uber and other ride hailing companies to do business in Upstate.

New York City residents and visitors rely on Uber and Lyft daily to drive them home or to work, but ride-hailing companies can't operate anywhere else in the state.

Authorizing phone app-based transportation network companies to operate in Syracuse and the rest of Upstate New York is one of the biggest issues that state lawmakers are trying to resolve before their session in Albany ends June 16.

According to some lawmakers, there's a 50-50 chance the state Senate and Assembly will reach a compromise and pass the same Uber bill before they depart to start campaigning for re-election.

Taxi companies continue to protest allowing the transportation network companies to expand to Upstate, claiming they won't be safe for consumers and will have an unfair advantage over taxi drivers.

The Senate and Assembly each have bills that would make it legal for the app-based ride hailing companies to operate throughout the state if the drivers have minimum levels of insurance while they are transporting passengers. But the two houses disagree on how much insurance coverage should be required.



The Senate bill includes required minimums of $50,000 for death and bodily injury per person and $100,000 per incident whenever the driver has his app on and is available to transport customers, and $1 million whenever a customer is in the car. The Assembly bill sets higher minimums: $100,000/$300,000 when the app is on and $1.5 million if a customer is in the vehicle.

Sen. James Seward

"That's the impasse at this time," Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, the sponsor of the Senate bill, said Friday. "But at this time of the session, things change quickly. I'm still hoping we can resolve the issue. It could be one of the last decided issues in the final week of the session."

"They're talking about a compromise, but I'm not sure if we're going to get there," said Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse. "I'd say it's 50-50. But we're going in the right direction on the bill. I would like to see it happen."

"I'm not confident, but I'm hopeful it will be worked out," said Assemblyman Al Stirpe, D-Cicero. "The vast majority of people in both houses want it to pass."

The Senate and Assembly bills have been approved by the insurance committees of both houses, but not by the Senate or Assembly as a whole.

The sticking point is the amount of insurance that will be required, not whether the state will require Uber and Lyft drivers to meet other specific regulatory rules that taxi drivers are demanding, Seward said.

Taxi company operators like Jacques Zenner of Zenner Taxi in Syracuse continue to object to the legislation, demanding that the state require drivers for Lyft or Uber face the same regulations that taxi drivers must meet.

In Syracuse, taxi drivers must be fingerprinted before they get a taxi license, and they can't have a felony conviction, said Zenner, vice chair of the Syracuse Independent Taxi Association.

He noted that in May, Lyft and Uber quit doing business in Austin, Texas, when the city's residents voted to require that their drivers be fingerprinted so that authorities could check their criminal history before they were allowed to pick up passengers.

"They had bad people driving for Uber," Zenner said. "They don't want their drivers to be fingerprinted. The traveling public would be in jeopardy."

The Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association has created a website detailing incidents where Uber and Lyft drivers have been involved in fatal accidents and crimes.

State lawmakers are willing to allow cities, towns and villages to decide if the transportation network company drivers should have to be fingerprinted, have clean criminal histories, and meet vehicle accessibility standards for providing service to disabled passengers, Magnarelli and Stirpe agreed.

Magnarelli said he would have prefered to have the state, not local authorities, in charge of those regulations, but that concept did not have enough support in the Assembly.

The crux of the taxi operators' complaint is fear that the ride hailing companies will have an unfair advantage and drive taxi companies out of business.

"They're not creating new jobs," Zenner said of Uber and Lyft. "They're just taking jobs from the taxi industry."

Except for insurance coverage requirements, Seward said it will be up to local politicians in Syracuse and elsewhere to decide if the same regulations they apply to taxi companies should be met by ride hailing companies.

If state lawmakers pass the legislation and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs it into law, Seward predicted that Uber could be operating in Syracuse and elsewhere within a few weeks, or a few months, at most.

"Our legislation would be effective immediately," Seward said. "How quickly the companies could be up and running in upstate communities would be determined by local regulatory bodies. The transportation network companies would have to approach them.

Details would be worked out at the local level."



"So many upstate mayors and other leaders, as well as individuals, really want this ridesharing option," Seward said.

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