By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN Some area taxi companies say they may not be able to operate under insurance coverage minimums the borough is now enforcing after nearly five years of not doing so.
The borough’s taxi ordinance, approved in 2005, sets the minimum amount of coverage each cab must have at $100,000 for personal injury, despite the state minimum being only $35,000.
Four of the seven companies now operating locally say they’ve always carried the state minimum and suffered no penalty or rejection at the hand of borough officials.
”We’ve always been accepted,” said Milton Tapia, owner of United Taxi on Franklin Street.
”We didn’t even know what they require here in Hightstown. Why now, after five years?” he added.
Borough Deputy Clerk Leona Baylor, who processes taxi license applications, said Thursday that the lack of enforcement was an “oversight.”
”I would check to see if they had insurance coverage that was current, but didn’t check to see the amount of coverage they had,” Ms. Baylor said.
However, going forward, Ms. Baylor said she would be checking for the coverage amounts, and applications that do not meet borough standards will be rejected.
”Even though it may not have been properly enforced in the past, now that we’ve acknowledged it we have to enforce it,” she said.
That higher minimum than the state mandate puts a number of taxi applications in jeopardy.
Along with United Taxi, Mega Taxi on Monmouth Street and East Windsor-based Super Taxi all say they carry only $35,000 in personal injury coverage, and that the higher premiums they’d have to pay to comply with borough regulations will seriously hurt their business.
”It’s absolutely outrageous,” said Katia Lagano, manager of Mega Taxi.
”With the economy, business has gone down already. Everybody’s barely making ends meet. We’ll be forced to not work in Hightstown,” Ms. Lagano added.
Alex Flores, manager of Super Taxi, said that buying increased coverage would force him to double his fares.
”I don’t see any reason to raise coverage from $35,000 to $100,000. We have a $5 minimum fare, and now we’ll have to raise it to $10 in Hightstown,” he said.
”We’re here to help people who don’t have a way to go places, but we’re a business. We may just have to not go to Hightstown,” Mr. Flores added.
Ms. Lagano also said the higher coverage requirement creates a market for illegal taxis to operate inside the borough.
Mr. Tapia and Miguel Manssque, owner of TeleTaxi in East Windsor, agreed.
”They’ll be no legal taxis in Hightstown and people will start using illegal ones. There’s going to be even bigger issues if one of those get into an accident,” Mr. Tapia said.
”Other taxis will go undercover from the police and operate illegally,” Mr. Manssque said.
The borough is processing a new wave of taxi applications after lifting a nine-month moratorium on new licenses in September.
The moratorium was in response to many resident complaints about taxis clogging up streets and honking their horns in the pre-dawn hours. The council formed a taxi committee made up of Mayor Bob Patten, Councilmen Larry Quattrone and Mike Theokas, Police Chief James Eufemia, Esther Velazquez of the Latino Advisory Council and Ms. Baylor to address the issue.
But their recommendations to limit the amount of cabs and companies that can operate in the borough failed to be introduced at council meetings at least three times during the moratorium period.
As of Monday, the deadline for companies to apply to operate for both the remainder of 2009 and the entirety of 2010, seven companies had submitted applications, Ms. Baylor said.
Along with United, Mega, Super and TeleTaxi, the other companies are Corina Taxi, Pepito Taxi and Two Amigos Taxi, all of East Windsor. The other three companies could be reached for comment, and Ms. Baylor said it’s too early to say which companies have the minimum required coverage.
In surrounding East Windsor, the minimum coverage mirrors the state minimum, according to township records.
To Councilman Jeff Bond, who has repeatedly advocated for the borough minimum to be even higher, that amount is much too low.
”I would think that in the most horrific accidents, the costs would go well beyond $35,000,” he said Thursday. “I would feel sorry for people in cabs who have that kind of coverage. Even people in lower income brackets have more insurance than that.”
When told about the cab companies’ complaints, Mr. Bond expressed no sympathy.
”It certainly doesn’t change my position. It’s been in our ordinance for years and it’s a shame we didn’t enforce it,” he said.
Mr. Quattrone said he see things differently.
”I have no problem with $35,000,” he said Thursday.
”As a businessman I personally think having $100,000 is the way to go, but I don’t know how much these cab companies have at stake,” he added.
Mr. Quattrone owns Dom’s Service Station on Mercer Street. He has said recently that he does not work on cabs to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
Mr. Theokas, who has spoken against the borough’s higher insurance regulations at a number of council meetings, said he still thinks there’s time to abolish the restriction.
”I don’t think it’s in our best interest to reject applications now after all we’ve been through. The ordinance is a living document and we can change it if we want,” he said Tuesday.
”Mandating higher insurance premiums is restrictive to business. We need to not tie (taxi companies’) hands with extraordinary insurance premiums,” Mr. Theokas added.
Councilwoman Isabel McGinty said Tuesday that it was too early in the application process to comment.
Mayor Patten, who did not return calls seeking comment, said at the Nov. 2 Borough Council meeting that representatives from Super Taxi are scheduled to give a presentation at Monday’s meeting to make a case for lowering the requirement.
mchiappardi
@centraljersey.com
