Officials with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission told the New York City Council last week that prices for the city's taxicab medallions fell in 2013 and 2014, but added it was difficult to say how much.

Credit unions in the New York City area and in other cities have made loans collateralized with the taxi medallions.

Competition from app-based transportation services has called the value of the medallions into question.

Testifying before City Council Chair Ydanis Rodriguez and 11 other Council members, TLC Commissioner and Chair Meera Joshi reported a small slide in the medallion's value.

According to New York media outlets, the value had fallen to between $872,000 to $1.3 million.

“It's really hard to draw conclusions from the data that are definitive,” Joshi testified. “Is it really $1.3 million to $872,000? In January 2014, sales ranged for individual medallions between $1.5 million and $920,000.”

Joshi, continued, “As the year goes on, sales ranged between $875,000 and $1 million in one month. So it is difficult to say that that depiction of 1.3 to 872 is an actual factually accurate characterization but I don't disagree as of late the transactions that have come in have had a lower range then they have had in months prior.”

The TLC is working to support medallion value by “leveling the playing field” between the yellow cabs that require the medallion to operate and the Uber and Lyft companies which do not require them, Joshi testified.

He noted in an answer to a previous question that medallion values remained higher now than they were in 2011 and 2012, and this reflected continued public support of the yellow cab industry.

The Committee for Taxi Safety, which pushes for parity in regulatory treatment between the taxi and app-based transportation industries, agreed with Joshi.

“The Committee for Taxi Safety agrees with the commissioner that protecting passengers and enhancing the City's ability to fund critical services like public safety are interdependent of education and having a vibrant medallion market place,” said the organization's Executive Director, Tweeps Philipps. “But the City needs to ensure that the revenue produced by the sale of medallions through direct sales by the City, transfer taxes and taxes paid through every taxi trip that support the MTA are not threatened by another licensee which generates no revenue streams for the City or the MTA. Uber pays no MTA tax and it's licensees provide no direct revenue to the City.”

Instant Insights /

Official Questions Taxi Medallions' Value

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