Augusta Police Chief Wayne McCamish is right when he says city councilors should scrap Augusta's entire taxi ordinance and "come into the 21st Century."

While they're at it, councilors should get the city out of the business of setting taxi fares. It's a paternalistic policy that monkeys with the free market and, in the end, is not necessarily good for the consumer.

McCamish's suggestion comes at a time when the city's taxi companies are under intense pressure from high fuel prices. The last time taxi rates were set by the city was 1995, when the price of a gallon of gas was $1.18. Now, the price of gas hovers somewhere north of $4 a gallon and doesn't look likely to come down for quite a while. In the face of such price increases, one taxi company owner said, "We can't make a living."

If taxi companies weren't locked into charging fares set by the city, then they'd be able to reflect the rising price of gas.

It's true that taxi users in Augusta are often of limited means and keeping taxi fares low for them feels like a nice thing to do. But it isn't so nice when you consider that by doing that, taxi cab owners get hurt instead. If the city wants to assist residents with transportation -- and we're not saying it should -- it would be better for Augusta to offer more low-cost public transportation alternatives for residents than artificially set fares in a private industry.

There is a role for the city in regulating taxi service. Licensing, bonding, driver background checks, vehicle inspections, as well as rules regarding refusal of service, number of passengers and proper places for pick-up and drop-off are all appropriate areas for government oversight. But a thorough review of the current ordinances should, for example, include consideration of the existing rule that allows a fare to refuse to share the taxi with other fares. In an era of high fuel prices, that kind of multiple-passenger trip should be the norm, not the exception.

Ask around city hall why Augusta regulates taxi rates and you'll get any number of answers. "Taxis serve a very vulnerable population," is one answer. "We've always done it that way," is another. But neither precedent nor the well-meaning argument about serving a vulnerable population really stand up to scrutiny. There are lots of services regulated by the city or state government that serve vulnerable populations and government doesn't set prices for those services. Taxi service should be one of them.