If Uber will guarantee that $50 million, Lightfoot might want to get on board

It’s time for Uber and the ride hailing industry to put its money where its mouth is — and Uber, much to our surprise, appears to be doing just that.

Uber officials told us Monday they’ve approached City Hall with another revised plan to tax ride hailing in a way that would generate an additional $50 million for city government. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a separate plan she says would generate $40 million more in ride hailing taxes — $10 million less than Uber’s proposal.

Uber’s latest revisions also include what could be a game changer: The ride hailing giant is willing to guarantee its plan will generate the aforementioned $50 million in new money. If its plan falls short, it wants the city to compel it and other ride hailing companies, by law, to make up the difference.

Late Monday, Lightfoot’s office responded to our inquiry about the idea of a revenue guarantee. She wasn’t exactly on board.

“While Uber’s latest proposal is much closer to the one the mayor originally put forward, it is sorely lacking on the details and comes far too late in the game on the eve of our budget vote,” mayoral spokeswoman Anel Ruiz said in an email.

Lightfoot has been against Uber’s tax proposals, indicating they would do little to ease downtown traffic congestion caused by ride hail vehicles, among other things.

Uber says it’s trying to address this in its latest plan by proposing a downtown fee structure of 75 cents per shared ride and $2.75 for single rides — the idea being that a $2 fee difference would encourage travelers to share Ubers and Lyfts rather than clog downtown streets in cars with single riders.

For off-hour trips, or trips outside downtown, Uber is proposing a fee of 50 cents per shared ride and $1 for a single ride.

Ruiz noted that the Lightfoot administration has concerns that the Uber proposal arrived with “no sign of concurrence from the other two ride-hailing companies who have been part of negotiations,” that the proposal “fails to provide tangible information on how new rates and revenue estimates were formed” and that “the proposed rates do not go far enough to dis-incentivize single-rider trips, which are of serious congestion concern.”

Truth be told, we’re not smart enough to know which proposal — Uber’s or the city’s — is ideal. We’re not the people running the numbers through Uber’s computer models, nor are we city transportation planners.

What we do know is that the mayor and the City Council could agree to Uber’s revenue guarantee for a year or two, see how it goes and tweak things going forward. If Uber or Lyft are wildly financially successful, the city also should be allowed to share in that success going forward.

It’s worth noting here that we’ve always been skeptical of Uber’s intentions. We’ve railed in the past about the exorbitant salaries for Uber executives while drivers struggle to hit the minimum wage. That still bothers us.

Over the past couple of weeks, the tax negotiations have been sidetracked by arguments over whether Uber might have offered donations to South and West side ministers to take its side in the ride hailing tax debate.

Lightfoot made claims, Uber denied them and she walked them back a bit.

It’s time for both sides to move on and consider the following:

• Lightfoot won the mayoral election in April on promises she’d lift every Chicagoan up, and Uber, rightfully or not, has become a symbol for corporate America. The ride hailing company needs to show the mayor it believes in her mission; the revenue guarantee is a step in that direction.

• Over the past decade, ride hailing has gone from being a drop in the city’s revenue bucket to an industry that could generate upwards of $150 million in taxes next year; Chicago took in $110 million in ride hailing taxes in 2018, some of which went to the CTA, according to the Chicago Tribune. Yes, ride hailing also has cut into taxi industry tax revenues and CTA ridership, but other cities are grappling with those issues, too.

• Yes, we don’t like the way ride hailing companies, to our thinking, have taken advantage of workers in the gig economy. But Uber is making what it says is a $200 million annual investment in Chicago through its plans to hire 2,000 people over the next three years to work for its freight service, to be based out of the Old Main Post Office. Lightfoot was on stage for the announcement alongside Uber’s CEO.

Finally, there is some common ground here.

Both sides are aware the city needs more money.

Both want to make sure ride hailing services remain reasonable for South and West side residents who use Uber and Lyft to travel in or between those areas, whether it’s to get to a job, the grocery store or visit family.

And both sides are looking for greater confidence that whatever they may agree to now, with respect to revenue projections and strategies to minimize congestion, won’t necessarily lock them in forever.

A revenue guarantee for the city — to be revisited and revised at a later specified date — might get both sides there. For now, Lightfoot’s office says she’s moving forward with her original proposal. We hope she reconsiders.