They Are Taxis, Not Limos Watching the meter climb in New York City's yellow cabs could get a whole lot more stressful this summer after the Taxi and Limousine Commission raises basic fares for the first time since 2006. The state added a fee of 50 cents per ride in 2009. Drivers want a fare increase of about 16 percent. Taxi owners also want the commission to approve an increase in the amount that they can charge drivers to use their cabs. So there is talk that taxi fares could increase by 20 percent. Cabs in New York still wouldn't cost as much as in London or Tokyo, but that's not much consolation. Twenty percent is too much. It makes more sense for fares to go up 12.5 percent, which is about how much subway fares have risen since 2006. All of this increase should go directly to drivers, who have been steadily losing ground in recent years. Owners already get an average of $113 from the driver to rent a taxi for a regular 12-hour day. It's more for prime times, like weekends. The driver also has to pay sales tax on the rental, buy gas at about $33 a day and pay credit card transaction fees. As a result, city taxi officials estimate that a driver's net income has gone down from an average of $152 a day to $130 since 2006. Taxi passengers don't seem to be organized enough to fight these fare increases. A commission hearing next week will almost certainly draw drivers and fleet owners. But nobody expects much noise from the back seat. On their behalf, we think drivers deserve a raise, but a New York City cab cannot become unaffordable. The best route is for the taxi commission to consider a fare increase in the range of 12.5 percent and make certain that extra goes directly to the 50,000 hard-working taxi drivers.