WSJ: Taxi Liberation Day
The taxi business has long been a launching pad for immigrants and entrepreneurs who want to start their own business without a big investment. That dream got a boost on Monday when a unanimous Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the state improperly blocked an independent taxi company from starting a new service.
Until recently, all aspiring taxis in Colorado had to prove that their businesses were financially fit and also "necessary" to the state. Colorado amended that crazy law in 2008 to say that if taxis were otherwise ready to go, they should be assumed necessary in most circumstances, but the regulators kept applying the old standard.
In 2008, Mile High Cab, an independent co-op of drivers, applied for 150 permits for a new taxi service in Denver. When their application was opposed by existing competitors in the taxi business, the state regulator denied the Mile High application. The drivers appealed with the help of the Institute for Justice. And the state Supreme Court concluded that the regulator "cannot simply ignore a statutory mandate" when the argument "did not prove that granting the application would be detrimental to the public interest."
That's good news for Mile High's drivers, most of whom hail from such African countries as Somalia, Nigeria and Ethiopia. "We have been fighting for more than 1,600 days just for the government's permission to start a business," Mile High Treasurer Mekonnen Gizaw says. "We are owned by 150 drivers and behind those drivers are 150 families who have been waiting for this decision."
Think about waiting nearly five years to be able to start a business. That isn't what made America great, but it's typical of the hostility to business in so much of the country. Kudos to Mile High and its lawyers for restoring a small measure of economic freedom.
