Bill de Blasio, the new mayor of New York City, is making good on his pledge to expand services for the disabled. Unfortunately it comes with a cost.

As with most political decisions these days, it’s not something for nothing and as the city prepares to add 7,500 wheelchair-accessible taxi and street-hail livery cabs on the roads by 2020 it also will have to deal with a proposed 30-cent taxi surcharge to help fund these new cabs.

Disabled advocates have been tireless in their effort to make cabs more wheelchair-friendly and while this appears to be a victory, those who will be footing the bill are not too excited. The proposed rate hike for taxi fares will go into effect January 1^st of next year and will extend beyond 2020.

Under the previous administration headed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, there were only 631 wheelchair accessible cabs in a fleet of 13,637. Bloomberg had a vision for a “Taxi of Tomorrow” but the design wasn’t accessible for people who use wheelchairs and even the Department of Justice ruled the proposed taxis were discriminatory.

In order to fulfill a legal settlement reached by the Bloomberg administration and advocates last year, de Blasio says he is committed to making 50% of the Manhattan’s taxi fleet accessible to everyone. Before the surcharge goes into effect, it still needs to be approved by the Taxi & Limousine Commission.

One cab driver told the website Gothamist, “You’re gonna charge people that are not using wheelchairs for the people that are using wheelchairs. All cabs should be wheelchair-accessible you might as well have the whole fleet wheelchair-accessible”.

The Taxi & Limousine Commission vote on the proposal will be held on April 30^th.