Follow the Money: Taxi companies still lead rest of the transportation industry in campaign cash to lawmakers

By Megan Messerly and Riley Snyder

When Nevada lawmakers quietly introduced a measure requiring mandatory 15-minute wait times for ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, public outcry and intense pressure helped spike the bill in less than 48 hours.

The measure revealed the first public side of a long-simmering tension in the transportation industry between taxi companies — well-funded political heavyweights in state politics — and upstart companies such as Uber, which taxi companies blame for the immense drop in their ridership.

And after a contentious 2015 session where legislators approved regulations allowing ride-sharing companies to operate in the wee hours of a Saturday morning despite heavy opposition from taxi lobbyists, a similar battle is likely brewing in 2017 with several bills affecting “transportation network companies” (TNCs) coming down the pipeline.

But the fight between the taxi companies and TNCs is far from the only transportation-related issue before the Legislature this session. Lawmakers are considering bills from whether to give tax abatements to certain airplane businesses to the makeup of the crews of freight trains.

In total, major companies in the transportation industry gave Nevada lawmakers $534,450 ahead of the 2016 election, with the biggest donations going to Democratic candidates. Taxi companies largely dominated donations from the transportation industry ($327,000), with other large chunks of campaign cash coming from groups representing truckers and auto dealers.

Democrats received the bulk of donations from transportation companies, reporting contributions of almost $375,000, with Republicans taking in a total $157,200. But they received even more of a lion’s share of donations from the taxi industry, raking in $275,250 during the 2016 campaign cycle compared to the $44,700 Republicans took in over the same period.

Both sides are employing scores of well-connected lobbyists — at least 14 have registered to represent Uber including the firms of Argentum Partners and the Griffin Company, and six are representing Lyft, including lobbyists with the law firm of Kaempfer Crowell. But few campaign donations came from those companies during the 2016 election cycle, with Lyft only donating $2,500 to a handful of candidates.

Taxi companies are also well-represented in the halls of the Legislature; Frias Transportation — the largest taxi donor — is represented by six lobbyists including members of Fennemore Craig law firm and The Ferraro Group. Yellow Checker Star Transportation, another major donor, has five registered lobbyists, including former lawmakers Warren Hardy and William Horne.

Below, we’ve totaled all of the donations made to members of the Legislature by the major transportation companies. As always, we’ve triple checked our numbers and math, but if anything seems off feel free to contact us at [email protected] or [email protected].

TOP 5 TRANSPORTATION MONEY RECIPIENTS: