Uber offers 'progressive' version of city ride-hailing tax

Uber has proposed its own version of a tax increase on ride-hailing, saying its proposal raises more money, better addresses traffic congestion and treats the poor more fairly than the plan from Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

"This is a genuine good-faith effort to show the city there's a better way to do this," Uber public relations manager Harry Hartfield said Wednesday. He said the company discussed its proposal with the mayor's staff on Tuesday but didn't get much support. Its next step is to bring it to aldermen, he said.

Uber proposed dividing the city into three tax zones and applying the tax to both the pickup and dropoff points for either a shared or solo trip. In the high-tax zone, covering downtown and the Near North and Northwest sides, the tax would be 85 cents. For medium and low-tax zones, it would be 50 cents and 30 cents, respectively.

Hartfield said the Uber version would raise $10 million more than Lightfoot's plan, and $21 million more if it applied to taxis as well. Lightfoot has said her proposal would raise $40 million, of which $2 million would be set aside for mass transit improvements.

The additional money from the Uber plan could all go to mass transit, Hartfield said.

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