A lousy tipper

There’s nothing wrong with Mayor de Blasio using $65 million of the $6 billion in COVID money from Congress for a new Taxi Medallion Owner Relief Fund, but it’s hard to see if the no-interest loans he’s offering will help cabbies with crushing debt survive the evaporation of their farebox income, first to Uber and Lyft and then to the pandemic.

The loans these owner-operators took out years ago to buy medallions, then valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, can’t be paid back as there aren’t enough fares. The daily average fares were approaching a half million before Uber and Lyft drove into New York. The total yellow fares were halved by the time COVID arrived a year ago, smothering everything.

The problem was not predatory lending, but loss of business. The 13,587 medallions are worth more than the 1937 original license fee of $10, but a lot less than the peak of a half million bucks or more. A majority of the yellows are mothballed, with only about 5,000 on the streets as there’s just no business. Midtown office towers are empty. The airports are all but deserted. Tourists are nonexistent. Hotels, theaters and restaurants are shuttered. And no one wants a ride.

Potentially, several thousand medallion owners could use the money de Blasio is setting aside to ease their monthly nut (up to $20,000 for a down payment to refinance and a maximum of $9,000 to cover monthly payments). But they’ll still need to be earning enough to break even, and that’s a giant if. This is no bailout and de Blasio isn’t coming to the rescue, just like state Attorney General Tish James couldn’t make a lawsuit against the city and the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Without a bailout, another way to save the yellows is giving them an edge in prime Manhattan fares, meaning disadvantage Uber and Lyft. Again, more problems.

At least if the hacks who try de Blasio’s modest plan don’t pay back his loans, that’s quite okay.