By Bill Cameron, WLS AM News

At Chicago’s City Hall…there’s a new proposal to make ride share drivers get chauffeur licenses just like cabbies have to do.

Cabbies turned out in force at city budget hearings to applaud City Council Transportation Committee chairman Tony Beale’s idea.

“If we just alone, just ask the Uber drivers to pay for a chauffeur’s license, just a chauffeur’s license alone will bring us $12-million, $12-million. That’s a lot of money!” said Beale.

Many other aldermen endorsed the idea in the name of fairness, but the mayor’s regulator Maria Guerra Lapacek said it wouldn’t really clear $12 million.

“There’s no way that with the staff that we currently have that we can handle that level of incoming licenses,” said Lapacek.

And Uber has been pointing out it already pays millions to the city in ground transportation fees.

@ Copyright 2015 WLS News