Two former commissioners of the Taxi and Limousine Commission have questioned the city’s debt-savings projections from its $65 million Medallion Relief Program.
The de Blasio administration announced this past weekend that it expects to help thousands of underwater taxi medallion owner-drivers through the federally funded Medallion Relief Program—a plan that provides individual medallion owners with $29,000 in no-interest loans and grants that can be used to pay toward their existing debt with creditors. Medallions are the permits that allow cabs to operate in the city.
The city said three medallion owners have had $700,000 in debt written off their outstanding loans by their lenders after the owners paid $29,000 each, and it is in talks to provide 13 other owner-drivers with as much as $2.6 million by the end of the month. Based on these initial accounts, the city believes that medallion owners could have $200,000 each in debt forgiven by their lenders through the program. Overall, that could result in $500 million in total debt relief if thousands of medallion owner-drivers opt into the plan and their creditors waive the bulk of what they owe after receiving the $29,000 payment.