That was my take-away from today's story by Chron secretarial journalist Dug Begley providing details on the proposed city ordinance regulating hire care services such as Uber and Lyft. If Begley is correct, and I see no reason to assume he's not, it appears that Yellow Cab (and other companies) have leveraged their considerable lobbying monies spent on Houston City Council members to preserve their control over their two biggest profit centers in the region.
The city has to be happy with this as well. By requiring the licensing of new hire cars the city is going to increase their revenue stream in "devoted fee" form which will not fall under the provisions of the suddenly controversial revenue cap.
Apparently, the revenue cap is so horrendous that rumored future candidate for Houston Mayor perennial candidate Chris Bell felt the need to weigh in, in his trademark, foolish writing style in an attempt to chastise Houstonians for being a bunch of silly prats who are not capable of understanding even the basics of government finance.
Given that attitude toward Houstonians, is it any wonder they don't trust us to handle little things like getting a hire car without government intrusion as well?
