The Senate Finance Committee in Congress has announced that it will reform the tax code by starting with a clean slate.
This is important to Mobility Lab readers because the $245 pre-tax benefit for riding public transit is potentially on the chopping block. If that happens, the transit benefit would drop to $125 per month – pretty unfair when compared with the $245 monthly parking benefit.
Before even reading the rest of this article, you should go to commuterbenefitsworkforus.com and take action. The Finance Committee will begin making cuts as early as July 26, so now is a crucial time. The website makes it easy and it very well could mean money in your pocket!
“Most members of Congress don’t have an opinion one way or another on increasing the cap on the transit benefit. Most don’t even know what it is,” Gerard Bridi, president and CEO of Edenred USA, the nation’s largest provider of transportation fringe benefits, told me.
“Our toughest job is not to convince members of Congress of the merits of increasing the cap. Our toughest job is getting the right members to care enough to take time to form an opinion one way or another,” Bridi added.
Edenred has worked for nearly 10 years on this issue. It has organized a coalition to support increasing the transit-benefit cap. The Association for Commuter Transportation and the American Public Transportation Association have been lead coalition members, along with unions, transit agencies, employers who offer the benefit, and vanpool operators.
Photo by Michigan Municipal League