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At the Anchorage Assembly Tuesday night, members discussed an ordinance that could possibly put an end to certain regulations on cab and limousine drivers in the local area.
The ordinance was introduced by Assembly Chair Eric Croft in the beginning of March. If passed, it would allow taxi drivers in Anchorage to create their own rates while getting rid of permit fees and other requirements like vehicle safety inspections, drug testing and insurance.
"I mean, we're in a changing environment," Croft said. "You know, with Uber and Lyft and then the state preemption of our regulation of them, the taxi cabs are competing with somebody who's essentially unregulated at the state level and we can't do anything about that. And a lot of the taxi cab owners say that's unfair, so to put them on a level playing field, I purposed deregulating taxis as well."