Isn’t the government’s purpose to enforce property rights? Medallion owners didn’t just mint these medallions in their own shed. The government created the medallions, and intentionally limited supply to prevent road saturation (and other questionable reasons), just like the government intervenes in the agricultural market for farmer’s well being.

With ride sharing, the incumbent sucked, and the challenger happened to be popular with the voting public. I suspect that reimbursing medallion owners is being considered because a large political donor acquired a number of medallions at discount, and is looking for politicians to “enforce his property rights”. The government should have done their job in the first place. Now, I smell something dirty. I’d recommend buying medallions.