Senator Chris Jacobs is calling on the State Assembly to include ride hailing in the state budget by the of the month. At a press conference on Saturday, Jacobs said not having the transportation service is a black eye for the city. Legislators downstate currently are the ones who may need more convincing. For that, Jacobs is asking those who support ride hailing to take to social media.
"We have a hash tag campaign, hast tag not again. We're asking folks to hash tag the Speaker of the Assembly, Carl Heastie, who is the leader, who will be one of the three negotiating the final budget, and we want to implore him to do the right thing by Western New York and the rest of New York that is left out in the cold in terms of ride sharing."
Jacobs said another stumbling block in bringing companies like Uber and Lyft to Buffalo is the insurance requirements that need to be sorted out. The state budget is scheduled to take effect April first.