Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, October 5, 2017.
Emanuel: Services like Lyft and Uber cost taxpayers $40 million in lost revenue
Ride-sharing services including Uber and Lyft have cost Chicago taxpayers more than $40 million in lost revenue, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This shortfall includes tax, license and permit revenue losses from other public vehicles, decreased payment in parking garage tax, motor vehicle lessor tax and lease tax, reduced ridership on the CTA and reductions in the MPEA airport departure surcharge,” Office of Budget and Management spokeswoman Molly Poppe said in a statement. Uber and Lyft denied the mayor’s claims. “It takes some creative accounting to call that a loss for taxpayers,” Lyft spokesman Scott Coriell wrote in an e-mail to the Sun-Times. “Chicago already charges the highest ride-sharing taxes in the nation, and is now looking to increase those even further.” [Sun-Times]
