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Federal legislation introduced this week by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., would ensure that taxi drivers don't get taxed on medallion debt that gets forgiven. The bill dovetails with a debt forgiveness plan under development in New York, where hundreds of drivers have filed for bankruptcy.

In a state where laws are unusually favorable to high-cost business lenders, taxi drivers are not the only small-business people getting trapped in loans they can't afford to pay back. The question is, what are policymakers going to do about it?